Please rate / categorize the Vanderbilt marching band for me

futureteacher_1
Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:38:29 +0000

Dear Gadad
I have to admit, I know very little about ‘band’ lingo, so the terms in which you were looking for info have left me blank. HOWEVER, my daughter is a freshman at Vandy, she is a part of the danceline and the danceline is under the auspice of the band as they perform during half time of football games and basketball to the band music, so I do know a bit about the band itself currently. They are highly regarded in the SEC and while I do believe they are somewhat student driven and the band members are very involved with the day in and day out practices and other deatils of the band, Dr Dwane Sagen is the head of the band dept and an amazingly talents director of the band overall. He is The Dept Head for The Blair School of Music, having graduated from Northwestern University with a masters in Music and then PHd from Iowa. He is a fantastic person and someone who is truly interested and engaged with the band in all areas. If your son goes to visit Vandy has him meet eith Dr. Sagen, you cannot help but be impressed. Go to the Vandy web site, look under athletics and you will find a link to the ‘band’ dept info. It is worth perusing for sure. It will also give you links to articles that have been written about the band over the years and their outlook on philanthrophy, which is huge at Vandy.
hope that helps a little.