The U.S. Marine Band, also known as “The President’s Own,” returned to SIU for the first time in 74 years to perform a sold-out concert at Shryock Auditorium on Oct. 8.

Established in 1798, the Marine Band is one of the oldest professional musical organizations in the United States. It gained national prominence under the leadership of John Philip Sousa, who served as its conductor from 1880 to 1892. Sousa, often referred to as the “March King,” composed well-known pieces such as “Stars and Stripes Forever” and “The Liberty Bell,” solidifying the band’s reputation for excellence in military and concert music.

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Today, the Marine Band continues Sousa’s legacy of musical artistry and public service, performing for U.S. presidents and in communities across the country. The ensemble is renowned for its exceptional musicianship and has played at every presidential inauguration since Thomas Jefferson, making this concert a significant event for the local community.

The band’s concert was a rare opportunity for those in the area to experience their performance live. The band’s tour spans the country.

Christopher Morehouse, director of bands and professor of conducting at SIU, said, “The band is on their annual tour. They break the country up…into five different groupings. This tour starts in Washington, D.C., comes all the way through the Midwest, down to southern Illinois, and then ends up in Washington in the Seattle area.”

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The Marine Band is playing 28 concerts in the month of Oct. “It’s been a long time since they’ve played on our campus, so we’re really excited that they’re coming through,” Morehouse said.

He mentioned that bringing the band to Shryock has always seemed like a challenging proposition due to its size. 

“I never really went after the Marine Band because I thought Shryock actually was a little bit too small,” Morehouse said. “They usually cut off at about 1,200 seats. That’s right where Shryock was. They obviously want as many people to perform as possible, but I always thought we were a little under that number.”

However, this year, things fell into place when Morehouse was contacted by the band’s tour manager. 

He said, “A tour manager contacted me, and they had kind of figured out where they were going. They were probably going up through Urbana, coming down through Paducah, and they’re like ‘send me an email.’ And of course, we’re not going to say ‘no.’”

The concert incurred no cost to the university, as the Marine Band covers all expenses associated with their performances.

“The remarkable thing is that it’s free for us. So, I mean, that is pretty remarkable, that we didn’t have to spend lots of money,” Morehouse said. 

The preparation for the event involved several pre-visits by the band before the concert could take place. 

Morehouse said, “About two months ago, I want to say they sent out a team to do a pre-visit tour. They look, take measurements of everything, figure out where they’re going to be and see if the stage size works. About a month ago, they sent security to come through, just making sure we’re okay that way.”

The band brought an ensemble of about 60 players for this tour. 

The concert program included a wide variety of musical selections. Morehouse said he hopes this repertoire ensured an exciting performance for all attendees. 

“They’re doing a couple marches at the beginning. They usually have soloists. So I think the tenor saxophone soloist is performing at our concert, a soprano soloist, a singer with the band on our concert, and then some kind of bigger pieces as well. And then they’ll, of course, end with ‘Stars and Stripes’ and ‘Armed Forces Salute’ or something along those lines,” Morehouse said.

Given the number of performances, the band rotates its repertoire. 

“They rotate three concert programs I’ve heard. So out of the 28 concerts they play in Oct., they’re rotating the three all the way through. So they play a lot,” Morehouse said. 

For this tour, the ensemble is accompanied by two buses of personnel and a semitrailer carrying all necessary equipment.

“They just bring everything they need to travel with,” Morehouse said. “They just come in and will be here all day setting up and then they’ll give the concert. They’ll immediately move on to the next spot on Wednesday morning.”

In addition to the performance, members of the Marine Band offered clinics to students at the SIU School of Music for educational outreach. 

Morehouse said, “The Marines, they’re paid to do the concerts and to go on tour, and then they’re asked, and people are nice enough to volunteer their time to come to a lot of the schools that are along the way.”

Morehouse explained that students could expect clinics featuring a flute player, a clarinet player, a brass quintet and a percussion trio, conducting an hour-long session.

The clinics will give students a unique opportunity to interact with the musicians in a smaller setting. 

“They are really a tight-knit group of musicians,” Morehouse said. 

Morehouse praised the musicianship of the Marine Band. 

“The U.S. Marine Band is one of the finest bands in the country, if not the world. To have players, musicians at their caliber, coming onto campus is incredible,” Morehouse said. “We have the School of Music, so we have students that are preparing to be in those positions. They might not audition for Marine Band, but they might be auditioning for orchestras. They’ll be musicians in their professional life too.”

Morehouse emphasized the significance of this performance for other local students and schools as well. 

He said, “Area schools are coming, which is great, because these are young public school students. They’re not hearing the Marine Band regularly. They’ll hear recordings, they’ll hear them on YouTube, but they’re never going to hear them in person. To have a free concert is a great opportunity.”

He said he believes that the involvement of school bands is part of what led to the rapid sell-out. 

“I think that’s what initially sold so many tickets,” Morehouse said. “A lot of the school kids are coming, and a lot of the high school bands from around the area are going to the concert.” 

The event also drew strong support from veterans and military personnel. 

Morehouse said, “We get a lot of military people in the area, a lot of veterans come, you know, if they know the Marine Band’s coming through, they’re going to come and support that and their fellow service members.”

Morehouse expressed his excitement about the concert’s reception. 

“It’s kind of remarkable that they’re going to be here, and obviously we’re thrilled that the concert has been so positive,” he said. “I mean, it was sold out within two weeks, which was pretty remarkable.” 

Having never seen Shryock Auditorium sold out before, Morehouse said he was particularly eager for this experience. 

“I haven’t even been here to see Shryock sold out, so I’m just excited to see that many people in there,” he said. 

While sold-out performances are a regular occurrence for the Marine Band, the event holds special significance for SIU and the surrounding community. 

Morehouse said, “It’s normal for the U.S. Marine Band members. They perform to sold-out venues all the time, I mean, they’re professional musicians, but for us just to see that, for our kids to see that, we have lots of schools, lots of different people coming to the concert, so they won’t have heard a band play like this.”

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