Lenawee County marching bands to be featured at Adrian College
Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Author: Mickey Alvarado
A whole lot of toes will be tapping to the tunes of 11 local high school and two college bands during the 76th Lenawee County Band Directors Association Marching Band Exhibition starting at 7 p.m., in Docking Stadium at Adrian College, on Tuesday, October 3.
The cost of the event is $5 per person or $10 per family. Tickets will be available at the gates, starting at 6 p.m. The event is expected to last approximately three hours.
Adrian College Marching Band Director Ryan Cupp is excited to see the county band exhibition back in Docking Stadium and expects a lot of fans will attend the popular event.
“This is a big event for our performing arts department,” Cupp said. “We are making sure the high schoolers who come here have an amazing experience. From what I’ve gathered, the community as a whole also comes out to support the various high schools. We’ll have students, parents, and community members there. This performance usually brings in a lot of folks from the community.”
High School marching bands from Addison, Adrian, Britton Deerfield, Clinton, Hudson, Madison, Morenci, Onsted, Sand Creek, and Tecumseh will be featured. Patrons can expect to see the high school bands in all their glory with color guards, drum majors and twirlers to help showcase their football game halftime performances.
Adrian College and Siena Heights University marching bands will combine and open the event with the national anthem. They will also perform individually.
“This has always been a showcase of the musical marching arts and a celebration of what we do,” Cupp said. “There’s no competition, there’s no first place or second place. It’s about everyone enjoying the fact we have this diverse art form that performs in so many different ways.”
Adrian College’s marching band will perform songs from the 70s and 80s, featuring Abba, Elton John, Bon Jovi and Styx.
“We’ve been working hard to make sure the songs we’re going to be showing off for the event are razor sharp,” Cupp said.
This is Cupp’s third year as the Adrian College Band Director and he has been working hard to get the program back to the size of the pre-pandemic years.
“It’s a process to get the numbers back up,” Cupp said. “But what we’ve been doing is trying to play super-high-quality music that gets a lot of people’s attention and increasing our footprint on social media by sending out us performing clips of our songs. We’ve also been doing exhibition performances.”
Cupp suggests that any student impressed and inspired by Adrian College’s Marching Band reach out to him for a visit.
“I love bringing in high school students who are thinking of joining our program,” Cupp said. “We want to make sure they feel comfortable here. We want them to feel at home for the span of the next four-plus years. If we can get students to come in and see how we rehearse, sit with our students, and play a little bit, it can get rid of some of that fear they have about the band and Adrian College being right for them.”
For more information about the event, email Cupp at rcupp@adrian.edu, or Blissfield Band Director Adam Sniezek at asniezek@blissfieldschools.us.
For more information about Adrian College’s Marching Band program, email Cupp or go online to adrian.edu.
