The University of Pennsylvania Band Information

The University of Pennsylvania Band (commonly known as the Penn Band, or its vaudeville-esque performance name The Huge, the Enormous, the Well-Endowed, Undefeated, Ivy-League Champion, University of Pennsylvania Oxymoronic Fighting Quaker Marching Band) is among the most active collegiate band programs in the U.S. The organization is a part of the Department of Athletics at the University of Pennsylvania. Like most of the other 50 performing arts groups on the Penn Campus, it has no affiliation with any academic department and is sponsored by the Vice Provosts Office for Undergraduate Life. Typically ranging between 80 and 100 members every year, it is among the largest and most active student-run organizations on campus, performing upwards of 60 times during the academic year. Like most of the Ivy League Bands, the Penn Band is a scramble band.

Founded in 1897, the Penn Band stands among the oldest college bands in the country, and one of the nations first traveling bands (1901). According to popular legend, the band began after a single cornet player named A. Felix DuPont played to the jeers of residents in the student quadrangle ("Shut up, frosh!"). A more understanding upperclassman, John Ammon, helped DuPont gather 27 volunteers who formed the schools first band.

Its history is marked with a sustained record of performance and achievement. In its first year, the Band performed twice for President William McKinley, as well as at the opening of Houston Hall, the countrys first student union. The organization later became an integral part of Penn sporting events—one of the first college bands to play regularly at sporting events. It has been a staple at historic Franklin Field and the Palestra, and campus traditions such as ‘Hey Day,’ ‘Rowbottoms,’ and Commencement ceremonies.

Appearances during the 20th century include countless NCAA tournament games (including The NCAA Final Four in 1979), the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade (one of the first collegiate marching bands to ever march in the parade), the 1964 New York Worlds Fair, and the Miss America Pageant Parade (on more than one occasion).

During its history, the organization has performed with notable musicians, including John Philip Sousa, Edwin Franko Goldman, members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the U.S. Marine Band ("The Presidents Own"), Doc Severinsen of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and the prominent composer Václav Nelhýbel. The bands performances also include national broadcasts and numerous recordings, beginning in the late 1920s and 1930s with the Victor Talking Machine Company (RCA-Victor Company) and nationally broadcast performances on WABC. In popular culture, Chuck Barris of Gong Show fame performed with the Band in 1977, and the Band opened for the Maury Povich Show in 1980.

The group has performed at the pleasure of many dignitaries and celebrities over its history in the context of celebrations on-campus and within the city of Philadelphia. This list includes Governor Ed Rendell, Vice President Al Gore, Grace Kelly, President Ronald Reagan, Bill Cosby, Lech Wałęsa, President Theodore Roosevelt, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Peter Lynch, Dolly Parton, Dan Aykroyd, Chris Matthews, and Rudy Giuliani.

By the 1970s, along with most of the other Ivy League bands, the Penn Band became a scramble band. However, it had begun moving away from the traditional corps style in the 1940s. Its current uniform, however, is an inadvertent nod to the past—it is a near-exact copy of the uniform worn by the freshman band in the early 1930s.

The first one hundred years of the organizations history was recently described in a book from Arcadia Publishing: Images of America:The University of Pennsylvania Band (2006).

Today, the Penn Band is a bastion of music and mirth on the Penn Campus, performing at campus events and traditions, all Football games, and nearly all Mens and Womens Basketball games. The group also tours along the East Coast; in the past decade, the group has toured Walt Disney World and Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, as well as San Diego, California. The groups appearances include eight NCAA tournament games on national television in the past fifteen years, ESPN Game Day Live, MSNBC Hardball, and the Fox and Friends Morning Show. In 2007, the band had the opportunity to perform with rock drummer Simon Kirke on the Penn campus. In December 2008, the Band appeared on a nationally televised sports special on CBS Sports, and in April 2008, the Band performed for Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton at an election rally on the Penn campus. Today, the Penn Band stands as one of the few, if not the only, college bands in the country that attends all conference mens basketball games, both home and away.

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