This Saturday, Sept. 30, the University of Wyoming’s marching band, Western Thunder, will be hosting an annual “Band Day” for high school band students all over the region. The event will take place on the University’s football field where later in the day at 2:00 PM the Wyoming Cowboys will be hosting a home game.
Starting at 9 a.m. over 1,000 students will flood into the main football field to begin rehearsing with the university’s marching band, their director Bryan Raya, and the band’s drum majors Estela Torres, Carlos Pacheco and head drum major Amber Sturdevant.
“They’ll [Western Thunder] rehearse from 9 to 10 [a.m.] and then we’ll do the full-mass band from 10 to 11 [a.m.] and then kick off is just after 2:00 [p.m.],” said Bryan Raya of the schedule. Raya started working as the university’s marching band director in July.
The students will have one hour to watch the university’s marching band and then one hour to learn two famous tunes and a full formation with the rest of the band. After that, students will head to lunch until game time where they’ll perform during the half-time show with the rest of the marching band.
Although many other schools also do an annual Band Day, some reaching up to 2,000 students, Raya and the band’s three drum majors believe this is a very special experience for many high-schoolers.
“What’s unique about this is that it’s a college football game,” said Raya.
That’s a big deal for many high school students who come from smaller towns and schools across Wyoming and the nearby region. Not only do they get to attend a college football game for free, but they will also get to participate in it.
“I know for some of the schools they don’t even have a marching band,” said Carlos Pacheco, one of the drum majors on the University of Wyoming’s marching band. “So it’s just like a great exposure to them.”
For those without a high school marching band, the drum majors of Western Thunder hope to show just how impactful having experience in marching can be.
“My favorite part [about marching band] is definitely the family,” said Amber Sturdevant, the head drum major for Western Thunder. “It gives people a home when they first go off to college and have no home anymore, it gives them a family and people to lean-on.”
Raya also believes that just being involved with a marching band can have great benefits such as stimulating creativity, increasing learning ability, teaching time management and leadership skills. All things which he believes can help with any field one chooses to go into.
Along with the in-depth exposure to the possibilities of marching band in general, Band Day is also a great opportunity for student recruitment to the University of Wyoming and Western Thunder.
“I hope it energizes them to keep doing marching band,” said Estela Torres, another one of the drum majors. “It’s like a glance down the road of what could be, joining Western Thunder.”
Western Thunder also wishes to expose students to the idea that just because you’re in the band it doesn’t mean you have to be a music major. Many of the students who make up the University’s marching band are going into other fields of study, and so they hope the event will encourage many students to continue with their passion for music.
Although the football field will be closed to the public while the bands rehearse and before game-day opening, the over-1,000 student marchers and Western Thunder will be seen performing their hard work and dedication to music at half-time.
