Lucas Gebhart
Staff Writer
I am a proud member of the ISU marching band. Although we are awarded scholarships for being in the band, it is not about the money. We are in the band because we love what we do.
The marching band meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and it takes about two weeks to setup a marching band show.
The first Monday is a music day where we learn how to play the song. Wednesday and Friday we begin the marching aspect of the show. By the second week, all the different aspects of the show slowly morph together into something that we all are very proud of.
Game day starts with a 9 a.m. rehearsal. The band will then regather at about 1:45 p.m. for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff to march for Bengal Fest where we parade around the parking lot before finally entering Holt Arena 20 minutes before kickoff.
Then, it’s show time.
The Bengal Marching Band has 87 members, including the Bengal Dancers, and is under the direction of Dr. Thomas Kloss who has been with the ISU Music Department since 2011, but is in his first year directing the marching band.
“It is a really fun experience creating marching band shows,” says Kloss.
Kloss has been forced to learn through his own creation. Not knowing what to expect from his new band, he has applied what he has learned from summer camp, the first football game and many rehearsals to writing his next drills.
“There’s a lot of little details,” Kloss said. “Imagine running a classroom full of 87 people, but they’re moving.”
When the job opened last winter, Kloss simply asked the question, “What if?”
With that simple question, a new vision and purpose for the Bengal Marching Band was formed.
Drum Majors Halie Ward and Jamie Burtosky are the glue that holds the entire band together.
“Our job is to hype everybody else up,” said Burtosky. “It is one of the hardest, but most fun parts of the job.”
Without drum majors the band would be nothing, and without the band, they would be nothing.
“Marching band cannot be done by a single person,” said Ward. “It’s a bunch of individual parts all being learned by individual people, put together into a single entity,” said Kloss. “A marching band has to have leadership structure in order to be successful.”
That is exactly what Ward and Burtosky provide the band, as they are people who Kloss states he has complete trust in.
Each individual has a responsibility, and that responsibility is crucial to putting together a good show.
“If one person is missing, there is a hole in the drill and a hole in the sound,” Ward said.
“Everyone is an equal contributing member,” said Kloss. “We need all of them.”
In marching band, it is good to blend in, not stick out. It is not one individual that makes a marching band great, but the uniformity and precision of each individual that make the band what it is. It is one band making one sound.
“Everybody is working towards the same end goal,” said Burtosky. “Everybody gets a more euphoric feeling putting on an overall presentation rather than showing off individually.”
The Bengal Marching Band has seen many positive changes during Kloss’ short tenure. He has a vision for the future of the band: dreams of a bigger and better band through recruitment of local and nationwide high school students.
These dreams are slowly starting to turn into a reality.
The band is already almost twice the size of what it was last year, and according to Ward and Burtosky, the band will see most of the underclassmen return next season.
The ISU Marching Band also received over $11,000 in an anonymous donation, which will only help moving forward.
Part of Kloss’ recruitment efforts is the ISU Marching Band Camp which saw over 300 high schoolers from all over the Western United States attend.
ISU also recently hosted the Mountain West Marching Invitational which saw bands from Pocatello, Boise, Utah, Montana and Wyoming.
“Students want to see intense performances,” said Kloss “They see how we perform and say ‘I want to be a part of that.’”
The changes that Kloss is making are starting to gain attention within the local high schools.
Burtosky is an alumni of Highland High School in Pocatello and volunteers with their current marching band.
“The old attitude towards ISU was ‘I’ll go here if I have to,’ but now the new mentality is ‘I can’t wait to go to ISU,’” said Burtosky. “It is a very drastic and positive change.”
The largest the ISU marching band has ever been is 98 members and Kloss hopes to have the band over 100 members by next year. This will allow the band to not only produce a better sound but fill out more of the field, creating bigger and better shows.
Through his recruitment, Kloss hopes to have at least doubled the size of the band in five years.
“We are making improvements in every direction,” Kloss said.
