Heidi Sarver, director of the UD Marching Band, was invited to make a presentation at a national conference.

Musical recognition

Director of UD Marching Band presents at national conference

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1:58 p.m., March 26, 2015--Heidi Sarver, associate professor of music and director of the University of Delaware Marching Band, is one of 10 directors selected to present an overview of their programs at the national meeting of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) in Nashville, Tennessee. 

The association’s 2015 national conference, which opened Wednesday, March 25, and continues through Saturday, March 28, is hosted by the Blair School of Music of Vanderbilt University. The conference meets every two years, with a portion of it devoted to marching bands. 

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The Fightin’ Blue Hen Marching Band has over 300 members consisting of brass, woodwind, percussion, and color guard and twirlers. Sarver leads the program with Jim Ancona, the band’s assistant director. 

During the selection process for bands to be featured at the conference, schools were required to submit a 5-8-minute video of their marching band from the last two years. After a blind voting process, each selected band was invited to send a representative to present at the conference.

Bands were chosen based on quality of musical and marching performance, showmanship and audience effectiveness, and depiction of effective tradition and innovation. 

From dozens of submissions, the UD Marching Band was picked, along with bands from Arizona State, Auburn, Kansas State, Michigan State, Ohio and Stephen F. Austin State universities and the universities of Arizona, Florida and Michigan.

“It is a distinct honor for the University of Delaware to be included on such a prestigious list — to be mentioned in the same breath as the University of Michigan is both humbling and exhilarating all at the same time,” said Sarver. “There is no question that college band directors around the country hold the University of Delaware Marching Band in the highest regard.”

The presentations at the conference consist of two 50-minute sessions with four or five band directors presenting in each session. Sarver will be show performance video and will speak about such topics as band recruitment, rehearsal technique and show design. 

For more about the UD Marching Band, visit the website.

Article by Ashley Heller

Photos by Evan Krape and Mark Campbell

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