Okay.
All right.
And then we're going to take this one and then you're rolling to it.
We know.
This one is on card number two.
All right.
And then I'm rolling it on.
How do I repeat this?
Oh, I'm just going to go back down.
All right.
Oh, we'll be you in the shower.
It looks nice, right?
Yeah.
And if you touch it.
Oh, it's under two is way of hell off.
It's at 3200.
Oh, it is?
Yeah.
There's a white balance button on the top right.
Those three buttons.
Oh, yeah.
I see it.
And then go to the...
You click that and then...
Yeah, I got it.
There should be one that says adjust or something.
Oh, yeah, I got it.
But it wasn't.
It wasn't 3200?
No.
Yeah.
Now it's going to look a yellow.
Really?
I wonder where it was.
And if you touch...
How do you find it?
All right.
I'm going to hit the performance.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you touch his face, that would be the focus.
No.
Okay.
I'm going to be trying this button.
Like...
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
There's...
I just figured I was just going to shoot it when they're not there and then...
Do a mask.
But yeah.
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
As long as it's just not like intersecting with the chair.
You know what I'm saying?
Like if this thing is out like not in the way of the leg,
then it'll be easier to mask it out.
Yeah.
All right.
Okay.
Okay.
All cameras are rolling.
Yup.
I'm good.
So...
Corey, give me a go.
You want any comments on this one, right?
Nice.
You was on beat too.
You were on it like that.
Corey, pay.
You don't...
Let me start that over.
I said your name.
Hang on a second.
Let me just...
I'm hearing a little crack on.
Where is my...
Where is it?
Remember?
Oh, it fell down.
Oh, it fell down.
Oh, okay.
Oh, okay.
Never kidding.
In the black sweater.
No one's ever gonna see it.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, there you go.
Oh, there you go.
Oh, there you go.
No, it's good.
No, it's good.
And Jane, I'm gonna have her start right over here.
Oh, yeah.
Cause you're on that 30 minute.
I'm gonna want those extra little moments.
I mean, I'm gonna want it, but...
Okay.
I just want to make sure I'm maximizing it.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
One more hand clap button, Corey.
Cool, sir.
Corey Pompey.
You don't know your music.
That said that wrong.
It's not funny, man.
It's TBS.
We don't laugh around here.
Another clap, or...
No, no, no.
Oh, okay.
Corey's like, what do I do with that?
Corey Pompey, UW music director.
What the hell am I saying, right?
It's band director, right?
UW band director.
I am.
It's right.
One of the band director.
We only got 30 minutes.
I know, man.
Corey Pompey, UW band director.
Welcome there to Focus.
Glad to be here.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate you making time.
You and I chatted a little bit online for one of my graduate school projects,
and I just thought, wow, that'd be a great guy to chat with.
Let me start here, man.
Music.
How did you follow the music?
Well, you know, I always loved it.
You know, growing up, listening to the radio with my vocals, driving in the car and,
you know, music and church and different things like that.
So I always liked it, and wanted to do it.
And because of the public school system that we had,
there was an opportunity to get into it, and it just kind of grew from there.
And what is it about music that made you say, wow, this is something I want to do kind
of for the rest of my life.
It's a passion, basically.
It is a passion.
I enjoy it.
It makes me happy.
It makes me feel good.
And, you know, it's mostly fun.
Not always fun, but mostly fun.
And so, over time, I thought, you know, this is something that I would like to do.
I would like to do for a little bit.
Yeah.
And as we sit in this beautiful space at the Emile Theatre here,
do you get any vibes when you walk into a place like this?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, you know, the ambiance of the place is just great.
And when I walk in here, I know that something good is about to happen.
And it's worth pointing out that we're sitting in, you know, the baby space.
Yes.
That's in the recital hall.
Yes.
Yeah.
And I see, we've got a piano set up here like you're going to do something over there
with your guy.
You don't want to hear me play T. Adam, trust me.
What is your main instrument?
My main instrument was the saxophone.
Oh, I did, too.
I played saxophone.
Okay.
Really?
Awesome.
And you're still picking it from downtown?
No.
You've got to get out there and show those youngsters how to do it.
This is how we do it?
I don't have time, unfortunately.
Of course.
You don't have time to get up here.
High step in the show.
Back it up there.
High step.
I'll end you myself.
Now, one of the interesting things I thought that we chatted a little bit about was this
was a job that you didn't really plan for.
It wasn't something you saw yourself falling into.
How was that?
Well, you know, my predecessor, Michael O'Chron, was here for 50 years.
Who is Michael O'Chron?
Was he?
Do they know him around you?
Oh, yeah.
Of course.
You know, interestingly enough, I saw him up the other night.
You know, he's done a lot for the band program and a lot for the university.
And so me not wanting to be here didn't have anything to do with him as a person or anything
like that.
It was just the fact that any time you're walking into a position where the person before you
has been there 50 years, at least I think most normal people would want to think twice about
doing that.
I mean, you're really talking about the Tom Brady of College Bays.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
I mean, how do you follow Tom Brady?
Bill Belichick could answer that question.
Could he?
And I was afraid that I might not be able to answer that question.
So for those reasons, I did not initially seek out this opportunity.
What made you change your mind?
Well, you know, I got a phone call.
And I don't want to make it seem like I was special because I got a phone call.
The reality of it is dozens upon dozens of people, if not hundreds of people, got the
same phone call that I got, which was, will you consider applying for this position?
What I know to be true is if I had not gotten that phone call, I would not have applied for
the position.
Because it's not like I didn't know it was open.
You know, as soon as Mike said he was retiring, words spread like wildfire in the profession.
So it's not like I didn't know that it was open.
I just wasn't interested in it.
And so, you know, that phone call kind of changed everything.
Yeah.
And where does a position directly in the University of Wisconsin marching band fit in the realm
of marching band types of jobs?
Why did you want, once you kind of started looking more seriously at it?
Well, you know, when I think of the University of Wisconsin, we're talking about a very
prestigious university, both in terms of academics and what it does in terms of athletics.
And then I was very familiar with the band program here.
Not just the marching band, but the other bands too.
And the history of the band program.
So there's a significant history here that even predates Michael O'Krone when we're talking
about the band profession.
And then of course there's, you know, a reputable school of music.
And so all of those things played into my decision.
And when I got that phone call, I must confess that it wasn't an immediate, yes, I will apply
there.
In fact, when I hung up the phone, I was fairly certain that I was not going to apply.
And so then, you know, over time you start to think, okay, it is the University of Wisconsin.
It's in the Big Ten.
And when we're talking about Big Ten and marching bands, collegiate marching bands, this is the
conference where it all started.
So there's, you know, some great, for lack of a better term, prestige associated with
being associated with a program like this and having the opportunity to work with a program
like this.
So over time, you start thinking about all of these things.
And eventually you get to a place where you say, okay, it would not hurt to apply.
And if they don't call me, they don't call me.
I got a job.
I was happy.
I wasn't looking to leave, which is one of the good things.
It's always nice when you've got a job and you don't feel like you have to leave that job.
So that was the position I was in.
I didn't have anything to lose.
So we tried it.
Yeah.
So and how many strong are you marching these days?
How many do you have out there?
We're about 290.
Okay.
It's about where we give or take a few.
Not even manage all that musically.
Oh, it's tough.
It's very tough.
But you know, we try to have systematic rehearsals throughout the week.
You know, we doing the pre-season process.
We're working on our warmups.
We're building up our chops and different things like that.
So the hope is that you've got a system in place that allows you to be able to learn a large volume of music quickly and hopefully at a high quality.
I read that Dr. LaCrona was notorious for remembering names and cities where students came from.
Yes.
Cory, is there something that you've taken that on?
You know, all the band members by name and where they're from?
That's a dream that I had.
And every year I say, I'm going to do better than I did the last year.
So I know a lot of names.
I do not confess that I can name every single person if you ask me to.
Faces?
I'm good.
Even in life outside of band.
That's an issue that I have.
You know.
What's my name?
Well, I know your name.
What did you say?
It's a nerve.
But, but, you know, the thing is, there are people in my life that I know.
Camera one name.
James?
What's it?
What's it?
You get that.
What's l?
l.
Stop on your head, stay there.
Well, I'm saying yes.
You know, there are people that I've known for years and years and years.
I know the face.
I can tell you everything about them.
I can tell you conversations we've had,
but if you ask me the name, I'm going to struggle.
And then when I'm not doing anything,
not thinking about it,
all of a sudden, it'll come to me.
I don't know how you seem like you have a chip
when you're showing everybody rememberin' that?
We call it something.
No chip, but it is a gift that Mike had that,
or has that I wish I had.
Yeah, and does he have his hand at all in terms
on things that you're doing musically?
No, he's greater.
You know, he is one of our biggest cheerleaders
and supporters, but when he stepped aside,
he stepped aside.
And he's available if I have questions,
or I want to know something,
or something historically that I'm tryin' to find out.
He's great about that, but let's ask.
What's the biggest thing that he's giving you as a chip?
Let's help you.
You know, it's interesting.
When I first got the job,
the band directors, Mike and I,
we had breakfast, and this was my first time
getting to know him in different things like that.
And someone leaned over and said,
Mike, do you have any advice for Corey?
Mike shook his head and said, no.
So as you can imagine, I'm sitting there thinking,
oh goodness, what does this mean?
And then after dramatic pause, I would say,
he said, no, do what you know how to do.
And that's been the best advice that I got from him,
because if I tried to be him,
I would fail, and I would fail miserably.
So I really appreciated him telling me
that you do what you know how to do.
And he also mentioned in that breakfast
that the previous director or major director,
because there was some transition period,
but the previous major, major figure
in the band program did the same for him.
Yeah.
I'm curious to know, in terms of the work
that goes into preparing for a performance
on a halftime in front of 80,000 folks,
just in person, what kind of work did you guys
put in to prepare for just one of those halftime shows?
How much time do I have?
You know, we start in the spring.
And so pretty soon, within the next few weeks,
we're going to send a survey out to the students in the band,
asking them what music they would like to play.
Then we'll get the survey, we'll go through it,
and we'll find some ideas that way.
Did that matter to you?
Like you really listened to it?
We do listen to it.
Now, that's not to say every single thing
that we played came from their ideas.
But if I look at the shows that we did in the fall,
most of them were ideas that students presented.
And often when it's really great is when
I'm thinking about something or something
the staff member thinks about is thinking about something.
And then you find out several students
are also thinking about the same thing.
And so we can kind of be on the same page in that way.
For example, I was really interested in doing a Frank Sinatra show
and a lot of the students were interested in doing the Frank Sinatra show.
So we did Frank Sinatra.
So those surveys are very, very important.
And we take them seriously, we go through them
and try to find ideas that we think will work.
Again, that's not to say every single suggestion
in there makes us way into the field.
And that's not to say that we play things
that were not in that survey.
But there's a healthy mix.
So that happens in the spring.
And then from there, we hear from the athletic department
on such and such a date,
you are going to have this much time for halftime.
How much time do you get?
Well, it depends.
You know, for us, ten minutes is a good number.
Sometimes it can be as high as twelve or as low as six or seven
depending on what they've got going for that week
or the theme that they're needing to push.
So once we have an idea of what the repertoire
is going to be for the fall,
then we try to slide things in in various places.
And then this is just a matter of creating those arrangements
and different things like that.
And we are doing this throughout the entire summer.
This is what's happening behind the scenes.
And we know it's called Marching Band.
Yes.
So which is more important?
The music or the marching?
You're traveling.
You're traveling.
Me, a trouble here.
I'll answer that question very shortly.
But just so that people have an idea of how much preparation
goes into getting ready,
we rehearse nearly ten hours a week for game days.
And it takes that much time to get ready.
So if we've got a one-week preparation,
we've put in nearly ten hours.
If we've got a two-week preparation,
meaning a one-week preparation would be,
you had a game on Saturday,
you come in on Tuesday,
and you've got another game on Saturday.
And that's all the time you get.
If we've got a two-week preparation,
meaning there's a week in between,
that takes about 20 hours.
But when you have 290-plus folks playing music like that,
can you hear a wrong note from that one horn?
Yes.
I mean, yes.
Most of the time,
I'm not going to confess that I can hear it all the time.
But often, often.
And does everything just shut down?
No, it doesn't shut down.
You know, they'll hear it,
and they can correct it on their own.
That if you hear it too many times at that point,
you have to say,
all right,
we need to double-check this.
Now, you asked a question a few moments.
Yeah, you started filming.
That I said,
oh, yes!
I remember now.
In an ideal world,
the marching and the music
will have equal footing,
and they will be both great.
Do you know that he will grin on your face right now?
Oh, you know,
I'm also a musician.
You know?
And so, you know,
if you're asking my personal feeling,
my personal feeling is that the music
is the most important thing.
However,
not everybody feels that way.
Not even within our organization.
And so, it's...
Well, I also read too that
when Dr. LaChron was here,
when he first took over,
he was known for creating this band
that was more athletic than other bands that were out there.
Yes.
What does that involve?
It involves a lot of practice
and a lot of...
So, bands weren't doing the high step in it
and that kind of stuff?
Well, you know, bands were doing the high step.
You know,
bands were doing the high step.
His innovation
was how we do the high step.
Because if you look at the HBCUs,
they all high step over the most part.
From the most part.
From the most part.
Yes, the human jukebox.
Yes, the human jukebox.
But they don't high step
in the same way that we do.
And no other big 10 high steps
in the same way that we do.
So, that was his innovation
and contribution to the band,
which is significant.
And we spend an
an ordinate amount of time
perfecting that
and making sure
that we're able to play the music
and execute the step at the same time.
Is it hard again?
On as the band member here to you.
It's challenging.
It's a competition.
It really depends
on the section
that a student wants to be in.
For example, in our band,
the trumpets and trombones
are the largest section.
By far,
there's not even close.
And so, if I'm a trumpet player
and I'm interested in
getting in the UW band,
that's not as difficult
as someone that is
interested in playing clarinet.
You know, so for example,
we've got a nearly 100 trumpet players.
But clarinet's there
in the low teens.
So, it's much more difficult
to get in the band
as a clarinet player
than it is to get in the trumpet
as a trumpet player,
just because of the sheer numbers.
Having said that, you know,
we try to take as many people
as we can.
And if someone shows
musical aptitude
and we have space,
we'll often train them
on another instrument.
Are they all in scholarships
or how does that work?
That is a dream of mine.
Another dream.
That is a dream of mine.
No, they're not on scholarship.
So, the students in the band
do it because they love it.
Now, we have a handful
of awards or so.
But those aren't scholarships.
Those are just a donor,
you know,
wants to award someone
for meritorious service,
but it's only a year.
That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about where,
if you make the marching band,
we're in a position to say,
you're going to get this much money
every year for four years.
We don't have that.
And that is a dream of mine
to be able to do something like that.
I'd love to hear your perspective
on what it feels like to be standing
on a ten foot ladder in front of me.
All those people,
you know, controlling all that music.
What's that feeling like for you?
I hope you couldn't hear that.
My stomach's growling.
It's almost lunchtime.
I hope it didn't make it.
It didn't make it.
It didn't make it.
It makes you hungry.
You couldn't hear it?
No, I can't hear it.
It's growling.
It's growing.
It's hard to describe.
It's hard to describe.
Because
it's what I do.
And I don't think about it.
You know, I enjoy it.
You know, when we perform for thousands
of thousands of people,
it's an enjoyable experience.
And I love it when I feel like the band
is kicking on all cylinders.
And so I'm very proud of the students
at that point.
But I don't know how I wouldn't describe it.
Do you hear me?
Do you get that rock star
sensation that you always hear people talk about?
No.
Do you feel like they're drilling?
Does that get into you?
I try not to let the adrenaline get into me.
I try as best I can
to be even killed
about what we're getting ready to do.
That's not to say I'm not excited.
Now, I'm not talking about
the act of
leading the music
and conducting the music.
That's a totally different thing.
I'm just talking about
getting ready to go
and doing what we do
and then the bands just perform.
We're done.
And now we've got to go to the next phase.
That's kind of what I'm talking about.
It's just, you know,
what I do.
And it's interesting, too,
that I'm having such a difficult time
describing that
because, you know,
I step on
the football field
every week.
And I know that it's a special place.
I know that it's a historic place.
I know these things.
But for me,
I'm just stepping on the football field.
I'm getting ready to work.
But then you see someone
that has the opportunity
to step on the football field
that has never been
on the football field.
In that place.
In that time.
And it's a totally different
experience for them.
And so that's kind of
what I'm trying to get at when I say
it's what I do
and I do it every day
and I don't think about it.
It's probably a much different experience
for someone
that doesn't do it
as regularly
and then has the opportunity to stand
in front of those people and lead them.
That's not to say I'm ungrateful.
I'm very, very grateful
and very fortunate
to be in this position
but it's
a way of life
more so
than anything else.
It's just
what we do.
And you brought up
the HPCU's and the band tradition
at some of those schools down there
and having gone to one,
you know,
a lot of times the band
is a bigger deal than the football teams
or the basketball teams
that they play for.
So when I go to UW games
my friends literally make fun of me
because I focus on that day
and that's a certain level of tradition
that comes with that
but I'm wondering if
the UW band is getting that kind of
reputation for itself
and I know it has been
in a certain sense but
is it getting to that level where
the band is sometimes
bigger than the sport?
Careful with that answer.
Yeah, I have to be very careful.
I don't dare say that the band
is bigger than the sport.
However
I talk to a lot of people
every week
that for them
the band is bigger than the sport.
And now I'm trying to decide
if I'm going to say
what I'm going to say.
So I'm going to say
you know
when everybody's winning
everybody's happy.
But when the team loses
the band wins
and
people are very appreciative of that.
I think I know what you mean
by that because
we lost a lot in basketball
when I was in college
and we lost a lot in football when I was in college.
But man
when that band came on we got all about the music.
Because the music was so good.
You know
so I understand what you're saying.
Well you know we want
the band to be a point of pride
for everybody
in there and so we work
very hard to be consistent
from week to week.
Well I shouldn't like that's a lot.
Because we don't want to be consistent
from week to week.
We always want to get better
as the week progresses.
But the point I'm trying to make is
we want to be the best that we can be
and we want to put a product
that makes people proud
and sometimes
when things are not going
as well
athletically as we all would like it to be
we're fortunate
that for a lot of people
they can still
point to the band
and be proud of us.
Yeah we all know that the UW band
has arms and a lot of different
activities.
Football, basketball, hockey
give us a sense of all the different
avenues you guys have
in terms of how you support some of the different
sports around the campus.
Yeah it's
quite tough.
We perform
for six sports.
Football being the big one.
And then you've got
men and women's basketball.
You've got
women's volleyball.
Then men and women's hockey.
And so
we try to do
as much as we can
for all of those sports.
We're not occasionally
often we're not
able to do as much as we would like to do
or as much as people would like
to see us do.
And that's mainly because
there are students
there's a finite
amount of things that
we can do.
And so we really have to be careful
that we're not
over extending
the students.
How do you balance the play list
for those different sports?
How does that differ?
That's a good question.
And so we have
a
fairly
less elist
in terms of our repertoire.
And so
whoever is on deck
for a particular sport meaning
whoever is leading.
For example, I do a lot of
men's basketball.
And so when I'm looking at
the set list for
men's basketball,
I'm looking at
what
might people enjoy
listening to?
And then I'm also
looking at
tried and true
UW tunes.
How do we mix that
with newer repertoire
that people might enjoy?
Because if I'm not careful,
I can play
an entire list
of just tried and
true UW tunes.
Which people appreciate,
but we'd also like
to play some other things too.
And so, you know,
didn't we play it at the last game?
If we did, maybe
we don't play it at this game.
So, it's different
things like that.
That go into it.
But basically, for all of us
meaning the instructional staff
and that, when we
go to an athletic event, we try
to create a varied list.
Now, for some of our sports,
there are some things you've
got to play no matter what.
If we're playing a man's hockey
game, they've got to have
the theme for a month.
They've got to have jumping at
the wood side and things like that.
Because if they're not there, then
it's not a man's hockey game.
Or at least not from the
standpoint of the band.
And so, there are things we have
to do to balance that.
Or, you know, at the football game
and we do the fifth quarter and we
don't do swing town or something
like that, you know?
We've got to hear it.
Let me pause your move.
I forgot to have somebody
count me down.
Oh, where are we at?
About 20?
Oh, that's a good question.
You're good.
Oh, yeah.
What's the time code?
Um,
verse camera.
Shut off.
I'm guessing.
Well, we have, we can't be at 30 already.
Maybe.
Correct me.
Whatever you want. I'm good.
You just started again? Yeah.
James?
Yeah, that makes me worried
does, like, your shirt's 30 and not 15?
No, it's definitely 30. Okay.
Um, it could be because
it's been a very natural conversation.
It was definitely 30.
I'm sorry, Cory, and now I've got this whole, like,
that's fine. It's almost there then.
If we, if we've hit our mark,
there, that's better.
Okay.
It was on that filler bus.
That's at least two weeks.
A bill of bus driving a lot.
All right, we're good.
I was, you bring up a good point talking about
some of the traditions that
take place with the music here at the University of Wisconsin.
How do you balance the tradition
and also balance style and creating style in the music?
Because I know you have a certain song,
varsity and things like that.
You have to play, you've got the tubulin.
And I remember being a kid come going to basketball games
and just, you know, seeing,
you know, the drum kits and things like that
inside the arena, which we didn't,
you don't see that when you're, you know,
at a football game.
But how do you balance the
tradition with the style
when it comes to playing the music?
I think you just
do the best that you can,
which I know is not a good answer.
But, but, you know,
as long as
the traditions are
honored,
there is space
to introduce new things.
And so, it's much more difficult if you
just throw all the tradition out
and
come in with all the new stuff.
That, that, that doesn't work.
And so, you know,
as long as everything's being honored,
then there is latitude
to be able to
do some new things.
I think that's the best way I can describe it, really.
Yeah.
I was referencing Dr. McCrone.
When he came on board,
one of the things he said he wanted to do was to create
an Ed Sullivan type of show experience
in terms of how you
create the music.
Any thoughts on what you're creating,
what your legacy will be,
can you look back?
You know, interestingly enough,
I don't think
a whole lot about legacy.
I certainly hope that
when my time is done
here, that people
will be proud of
the work that has taken place.
That they will recognize the
UW band as being
the UW band.
In other words, yes,
there's a different director now.
But the band
that they know and love
is still playing music at a high level
is marching at a high level.
And so, those are the kinds of things
that I think about.
I know there are things
that I would like to do.
For example, I mentioned
yes, I would like to see
our students get some kind of
scholarship
for everything
that they do.
But I don't consider that
as part of a legacy
that I left necessarily.
That's just something
I would like the students
to be able to have.
It's something that
I think the students deserve.
Now, unfortunately,
I'm not a million there,
because if I was, I'd just
make it happen.
But, you know, I hold
out hope that at some point
in the future, something
like that will happen.
And so, you know, I'll
leave the legacy to other people.
But my hope is that
we've done good work
that people can be proud of.
I'm pretty sure that if you were
going to pull that off
while you're here, that 60 years from now,
people will be like,
yeah, it's good for these
when you've got yourself
scholarships.
Well, I'd love
to be able to do that if we can.
Now, I think you've got
the big spring concert coming up.
What's the significance
of the spring concert?
How big of a deal is that?
The spring concert is a very,
very big deal.
For one thing, we've been doing it
for nearly 50 years.
And this is an event
that has just grown
over time.
And I don't know
of any other
major band program
that does an event
that's not the way we do it.
Now, there are a lot of band
programs that have indoor concerts.
But
the way we do the indoor
concert, that is
unique to us.
And that's what makes it
special because, you know,
when we're at a football game,
you know, our goal
is to entertain
the crowd.
But on some level,
I take that back.
We're there in service of the
football team and the athletic
program.
You know, we're in the stands.
We're big supporters.
No matter what the score is,
our job
is to bring the energy,
keep the energy.
Now, when we go to halftime
and different things like that,
our goal is to perform for the
people and show them a good time.
Today, they're there
for a football game.
When we're at the spring concert,
all of those people are there
because they love the band.
And they're there
to support the band.
And so everything
that we are doing
for that particular event
is only in service
of the music.
And it gives people
an opportunity
to hear the band in a different
way.
Because when we're out on the field
with A,
in terms of the acoustic,
we're outdoors.
And it's very
difficult
to fill up the stadium
the way that we want to.
There's not much subtlety.
You know, we can't play very
softer.
It won't be able to hear us.
But if we get indoors,
you know, that gives our palette
increases.
And there are things
that we're able to do
musically that
as much as I wish
we could do the math of football
games, as much as I
insist that we
do do a math football games.
There's a practicality
to it, if that makes sense
and so in that event,
in that particular
environment, you have a chance
to hear the music
in a different way.
And we also have
the opportunity
to bring in these other
production elements
to enhance what we
are doing musically.
And so, to me, that's
what's really special.
That people
are spending their
hard-earned dollars
to come
to this show
that we're putting on
in the Cole Center.
They're coming to see us
and that
really means a lot.
What happens to all these
musicians once they're done here
at the University of Wisconsin?
Do we have anybody that's ever
so happy to see their
musical careers?
Well, it depends
on what they like to do.
You know, most of the students
in the band
are not music majors.
In fact, very few
of the students
are music majors.
So, most of them
are not going to go
into careers.
Most of them
are not going into
professional music careers.
And so, most of our students
will go on
to lead productive lives.
They're going to be
professionals
and contributors
to their community.
But for a lot of our students
that leave, they still
maintain
this connection to the band.
A lot of our students
still play
recreationally.
You know, we've got an alumni band.
They have events
that they play for.
They come back every year
to perform at football games.
There's a group.
There's a jazz group
outside the Milwaukee area.
Most of those people
were in the UW band.
They just get together
played because they enjoy
and different things like that.
We've got
former members of the band
that perform for
the Green Bay Packers
on a weekly basis.
So, they go out and do a lot of things.
But mostly, not in music.
But one of the things
that I do hear about
from time to time
from the students is
how significant
the experience
of being in the band was
and how
those experiences
transfer
or applicable
to what
they are doing professionally.
And I'd be curious,
you know, what keeps
a band director up at night?
Oh, boy.
It's
well,
all of it can keep
one up at night, you know?
If, you know,
I talked about the one-week preparation.
One-week preparation
and we've had our Friday rehearsal
and you think to yourself,
I don't think we're as prepared
as we'd like to be.
That can keep you up at night.
Or we're in Tampa
for the bowl game.
And we'll
staying on the beach.
I hope everybody gets back
in one piece.
You know, we don't want to be
the band that had
someone, you know,
go out into Tampa Bay
and the water
I'm talking about specifically
have something happen.
Those are the kinds of things
that keep me up at night.
So sometimes they're related
to
the quality of the performance
that we're getting ready to do.
And sometimes
there's just wanting them
to be safe and
make good decisions.
So it's
there a lot of
things
that can keep
one up at night.
But I'm grateful
to be able to say
those situations are
few and far between.
My own question.
Where do you take this band from here?
Where do we take it from here?
Well,
we always want to
march well.
We always want to play well.
And I feel like
we've been able to do that
for the most part.
So where would I like to take the band?
We're doing well for ourselves.
The band is doing
very, very well in the
grand scheme of things.
But there are some bands
that have an endowment
of nearly $30 million.
Which means
they are in a position
to not only do the things
that they need to do,
but they're in a position
to do things that
they want to do.
And then some.
Now again, that's not
to say we're not in a good position.
We are.
But wouldn't it be nice
to have a $30 million
endowment
so that, you know,
this might fall on the category
of first world problems.
But, you know,
if new uniforms,
if we were to say
we want to get new uniforms,
well, I can already tell you
that new uniforms are going to cost
nearly a half million dollars.
Well, if I've got a $30 million
endowment, I can just say
we'll get new uniforms
and that's it.
Well, if we want new uniforms,
I've got to plan a little bit.
We can get them.
I've got to plan a little bit.
So I'd love to be able
to see us get at
that level.
And then only two or three bands
at that level.
But that's where
I'd like to see us go.
So in terms of performing,
yes, we'd love to keep
the stop at the top.
But we'd love
to do more pictures
and different things like that.
And we're always trying to improve
what we're able to do technically
in terms of
how we perform music.
I think it's safe to say
that's just yet to come.
Frank Sinatra,
if people come to our spring show,
they might hear a little bit of
the best is yet to come.
Corey Pompeo, you're going to be
a band director.
Thanks for joining us on
our focus.
Thank you so much, Mervous.
It's been a pleasure.
Nice job, guys.
Alright, cool.
So I'm going to keep rolling
so this is where you guys are
just for a little reason.
Good stuff, man.
So this is kind of
very, very special with this.
Well, I just hope
I didn't get into
trouble with it.
We'll find out.
We'll find out, won't we?
Corey, what happened to Corey?
Yeah, I think they're planning
on hearing this one.
I think we're trying to
coincide with the spring concert.
So what is that?
What is that?
That's the next month, right?
That is next month, 19th and 20th
of April.
Yeah, I think they're
talking about bringing this
one out from around that time.
No, wonderful.
I'll let you know.
Sure, let me go.
It should be in its entirety.
Okay.
Even your filibuster
is going to be...
I'm not listening.
Cricket or something.
Oh, people would love that.
That would be so funny.
All right, Murph, I'm going to
get room to tell them.
Okay.
So I'm just going to be sitting
in the quiet for a second.
That's probably good.
And then, could I get you guys
as a concert?
Yeah.
That's probably good.
And then, could I get you
guys as a concert?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, could I get you guys?
You guys can take your mics off
and just kind of stand up and just
leave the chairs where they are
because I'm going to try and get
a shot of just the empty chairs
so that I can frame out these
chords in the final.
Oh, yeah.
There you go.
Yeah.
Perfect.
You can just turn down for three.
All right.
Cool.
How many do you have here?
Get a steel picture of me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's cool.
I mean, I got some while you were
shooting.
Oh, you did?
Yeah.
Unless you guys want to just be like
you two looking at the camera.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This guy's going to be Quincy Jones.
Oh, it's my dream.
Yeah.
Like, you know, Corey Pompeii.
I know people have to call you
Corey Pompeii back in the day,
right?
Somebody had to.
Babe, I don't remember.
Well, there's a day myself.
It's not funny.
What is this reference from?
I'm dating myself.
It's not funny.
When is this reference from 52?
Dr. Bob?
My friend said, you marched with Dr. King.
I was like, all right.
And I'm not eating that all of it.
No, I didn't.
The witch, Dr. Bombay.
There was Dr. Bombay that was
Samantha's doctor.
Okay.
That's fine.
Bombay.
Yeah, that was enough to cover it.
All right.
I'm just going to go.