Band Alumni News

 

Together again

September 29, 2008

George Parks has seen a lot of talent pass through the ranks of the UMass Minuteman Marching Band since he became director in 1977.

One of the best is returning to Amherst on Saturday. She is Heidi Sarver, who earned a bachelor’s in music education at UMass in 1986, got her master’s there two years later and then followed in her mentor’s footsteps. Since 1995, Sarver has been director of the University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens Marching Band, which will be accompanying the Delaware football team for the 3:30 kickoff against the Minutemen.
While she was a UMass undergraduate with the band known as “the Power and Class of New England,” Sarver was the drum major and a show designer, and during her years in Delaware she has continued to design some of those spectacular shows the Minutemen are famous for.

Each band will perform at halftime Saturday, and Parks said those in the stands at Warren P. McGuirk Alumni Stadium can expect some kind of joint performance, with about 700 marchers and musicians on the field.

Now that’s power and class.