VIDEO: MSU Strikes Up The Band

STARKVILLE, Miss.(WCBI)—With Fall just around the corner that means the Mississippi State Famous Maroon Band is busy preparing to hit the gridiron.

Band camp is well underway for the largest band Jacob Lanier has ever seen.

“I play clarinet and so our clarinet section has grown now to 50. Trumpets we have 55 of them,”said head drum Major Jacob Lanier.

This year the Famous Maroon Band reached an all time high in membership with the number of marchers reaching 394. Band Director Elva Kay Lance says to get to numbers like those a lot of ground work must be done.

“We have several events throughout the year that bring students onto our campus. They can meet students in the band program. The first activity that invites students to campus will be our marching honor band. That’s Labor Day weekend for our first game. We can tell them about Scott Field experience or Davis Wade Stadium but bringing them here and letting them perform with us, on the field, at a football stadium is fun for us all,”said Lance.

All band members must audition to be apart of the marching ensemble but Lance says with such a large number of students they are only able to offer scholarships to help with a portion of the students education.

“We give students enough to help them pay for their books this semester. The top musicians do receive a little bit more than that. We do try to assist them but no one is coming to school on a full band waiver but we do try to assist them with their school expenses as best we can,”said Lance.

Lanier says the increase in numbers could be attributed to a sense of family the band provides incoming students.

“Inside our squads freshmen have already had two breakfasts every morning with the squad leaders and the veteran members and so that’s a great way from them to learn the traditions of the famous maroon band and get to meet in and outside of their section,”said Lanier.

The Famous Maroon Band will perform its first show, September 2nd when State faces off against Charleston Southern Buccaneers.