UTRGV Marching Band made its performance debut in Fall 2023
Timothy Chapman
UTRGV Marching Band walking down the McAllen Holiday Parade on Dec. 2.
In a record time of less than seven months, the UTRGV Marching Band wowed crowds across the Rio Grande Valley during its performances last fall.
The marching band’s first performances were at an Oct. 14 Pigskin Jubilee event and the Dec. 2 McAllen Holiday Parade.
UTRGV Athletic Band Director Ronnie Rios said a typical university would have done its first performance in its second or third year. However, UTRGV did it in a matter of weeks.
“As a matter of fact, that was one of our proverbs that we announced at our shows was, ‘Eight weeks ago, this band was not around, but today we are alive,’” Rios said. “The name of our show was called ‘Being Alive.’ We actually did a Stephen Sondheim song in the middle of our production called ‘Being Alive.’”
Rios explained he decided to let the band play as soon as possible because of the hard work members put in, saying he wanted to give them something they would be proud of.
“It would have been very convenient not to perform, but I think the students deserved to perform after all the hard work that they put in, and they deserved that and they embraced it,” he said.
Color guard member Laura Mendoza said leading up to the first performances, she was asking herself if the band could really do this, but through talented musicians, it all worked out in the end.
“We worked as a team,” Mendoza said. “We definitely relied on one another, and it was probably, like I think it was the best thing to really go in like headfirst into it. Because like Rios said, it makes everything easier from now on. And now we know what to do from here on out.”
The marching band’s very first performances were at a Pigskin Jubilee where the band played at one event early in the day and then traveled to a different event later in the evening and Mendoza described how quickly the band improved within those hours.
“It felt like a disaster at first,” she said. “But the more and more that we figured out, like, ‘OK, this is what we got to do, this is where we got to go.’ And we figured it out and we did it pretty well. Pretty damn good job.”
Drum Major Paul Farris said the feeling around the band was more excitement than nervousness and he made sure to keep his fellow players calm by giving them words of encouragement.
“I tell my sectionmates when I was in [the McAllen Holiday Parade] … ‘When you look at the crowd, the first person that’s right in front of you is me, so you don’t have to feel nervous, I’m the closest to the stands so I feel like they’re looking at me and they’re looking at you and you’ll be OK,” Farris said.
Farris said it was special being able to grow interest in the community and have the support while the band performed.
“ I know our first performance, we had kids that their eyes were saucers just watching us the whole time,” he said. “
For more information about the marching band and how to join, visit utrgv.edu/marchingforward.
This is Timothy Chapman for Vaquero Radio.
