TU Marching Band members perform in college football national championship virtual halftime show

By Rebecca Kirkman on January 11, 2021

Members of the Towson University Marching Band (TUMB) performed on the big screen at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami as Alabama and Ohio State met for the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, Jan. 11 at 8 p.m.

The 2-minute virtual performance of Beyonce’s “End of Time” by the Intercollegiate Marching Band (IMB) featured more than 1,500 students from 200 university marching bands.

The video premiered during halftime at the stadium and on the IMB YouTube channel.

Organized by the College Band Directors National Association, the newly formed IMB aims to bring together university marching bands across the country for virtual performances since they have been forced to the sidelines due to the novel coronavirus.

TUMB director John Miliauskas nominated 10 TU seniors to participate, including drum majors Bradley Stansbury ’21 and Emily Wose ’21.

“It was a really unique experience; I had never seen something like this at this scale before,” says Stansbury, a biology major who joined TUMB his freshman year. “I was very honored to be asked to help out with this. I’m glad we’ve been able to have any sort of opportunity when the world has pretty much been shut down in every other aspect.”

Miliauskas and assistant director Taylor Yozwiak delivered band uniforms to students to wear while they recorded their parts at home or from the Center for the Arts band rehearsal space. 

“Nine other TUMB students and I got the chance to learn the piece and put together some choreography, and we even were able to meet up on campus for the first time in months to create our video submissions,” says instrumental music education major Emily Wose, who played trumpet in the performance. “Musicians are constantly trying to adapt and create music in new ways, and I learned a lot from preparing for this experience that I will carry with me as I become a music educator.”

The experience offered seniors a memorable experience to cap a virtual season that was very different from past years.

“Band has been a big part of their college experience, and they get to the pinnacle of it, their senior year, when we typically have so many great senior activities and we really send them off with a lot of appreciation, and they weren’t able to have those things this year,” Miliauskas says. “My fingers are crossed that this can, in some way, fill that void.”

“It’s been quite a different experience from what I had hoped,” Stansbury adds, “but with the forethought that John Miliauskas put into the ensemble, as well as Taylor Yozwiak, they gave us a really good experience and made the best out of really crummy situation.”