More than seven hours after starting an all-day rehearsal, the UF Fightin’ Gator Marching Band brass section was still picking up speed.
A graduate student stomped, clapped and beatboxed on a pedestal facing a group of band members. After only a few run-throughs, their tubas and trombones had turned the noise into the fat and mellow jazz of “Swing Swing Swing.”
The band departed Monday for London, where they will perform Friday before the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics and other venues this week. But first, they had to face 14 hours of continual rehearsing Sunday.
“It can be really overwhelming and draining,” said Rene Mark, 23, former tuba section leader and recent UF graduate. “But marching season is so far away that we really do need the time to put on the music … it’s a lot to take in.”
It was the first time all 216 members of the marching band making the trip had met to rehearse together since receiving their sheet music in April.
One of the challenges the band faces performing abroad will be memorizing a set list almost 50 songs long. Classic rock from The Who mixed with Adele filled the halls of Steinbrenner Band Building during Sunday’s final rehearsal.
The set list contains almost a football season’s worth of music, said Gator band director Jay Watkins.
“The drum majors or the directors can call up anything at anytime during the show,” Mark said. “You just have to know it and be ready to play it.”
Watkins remained confident in the students’ preparedness. During football season, marching band members learn a new halftime show for each home game.
“They’re used to playing in front of 90,000 people up close and personal,” Watkins said. “I think we’re just moving to a different stage.”
The marching band’s journey to London began about a year and a half ago, according to Watkins. Olympic organizers asked for materials such as three portfolios of recorded half-time performance videos, repertoire lists and CD recordings of the band performing.
The band’s official invitation to play the London Live pre-show to the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies came at the end of last September. The band will perform at Victoria Park at 8 p.m. Friday.
“For a majority of the world this is going to be the first time they see the University of Florida,” Watkins said. “We’re the true ambassadors.”
For Mark, it will be the first time she’s performed out of the country since her parents bought her first music lessons in elementary school. Five instruments and nearly 20 years later, an opportunity presented itself.
But the expenses of the trip cost about $4,000 per student, totaling almost $1 million to send the 216 members and band staff. Many students’ finances were tight. Watkins said the initial count dropped by about 10 percent because of the trip’s cost.
”I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen,” Mark said. “But I was going keep trying to make the payments until I couldn’t make them anymore.”
Mark sent emails to Gator clubs and organizations, asked other Gators for donations using social networking and started a fundraising website to meet her goal.
“Eventually the donations started coming in,” she said. “I fundraised over $3,000.”
She plans on visiting family and sightseeing. Still, she remains most excited to perform for an international audience.
“To be able to take the band abroad and share it with people who probably haven’t had a typical marching band experience is exhilarating,” she said. “It’s something very unique to the SEC and America in general.”
Jay Watkins, UF associate director of bands, conducts a final rehearsal Sunday at the Steinbrenner Band Building before departing for London Monday. The band will perform Friday before the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
