The 301 members of the Cornhusker Marching Band will make their 2013 debut on Aug. 31 at Memorial Stadium, with pregame and halftime performances at the University of Nebraska’s football season opener against the University of Wyoming, the University of Nebraska has announced.
The drum majors for this year’s “Pride of All Nebraska” are senior Andrew Kroeger of Omaha, sophomore Kayla Krueger of Lincoln, senior Ali Malik of Lincoln, and—here’s why the story is on our site—senior Nicholas Raimondi of Deerfield, Ill. Mr Raimondi is a music education and technology major at the university.
The state of Illinois is well represented in the ranks as well, including
- Tessa Culbertson from Aurora, clarinet, junior, education and pre-speech language pathology
- Ryley Horner from Antioch, clarinet, freshman, music education
- Keith Jett from Romeoville, trumpet, freshman, computer science
- Joshua Lundquist from Dunlap, horn, sophomore, biological sciences
- Jake Mastera from Hoffman Estates, tuba, junior, criminology and criminal justice, and sociology
- Justin Ronne from Libertyville, horn, freshman, music education
- Kaitlyn Rosploch from Lake Villa, flag, freshman, forensic science
- Daniel Thompson from Oswego, tenor saxophone, freshman, music
The University of Nebraska, which joined the Big 10 Conference in 2011, brings a marching band to a football game between the Cornhuskers and the University of Wyoming. Led on the field by three Nebraska natives and by drum major Nicholas Raimondi from Deerfield, Ill., the band is known as the Marching Red and was founded in 1879 as an ROTC unit. It stands as one of the oldest marching bands in the nation, winner of the 1927 Distinguished Recognition Trophy, which was presented to the band by John Philip Sousa himself.
One of the reasons I published this story is that I thought band directors at Illinois high schools might know a thing or two about where their former students are proudly marching among the college ranks, what they’re doing in college, and so on. Discuss đŸ™‚