Marching band makes transition to new field by River Campus

As part of a campus initiative to renovate spaces in older buildings, Southeast’s marching band has made the move from its original headquarters in Brandt Music Hall to its new facility on Morgan Oak Street in Cape Girardeau, in proximity to the River Campus.

A building that once housed the local Salvation Army was turned into a storage unit, annex, office and rehearsal field — an essential one-stop space for all things marching band.

Dr. Marty Reynolds, director of bands at Southeast, said the biggest advantage to the move is the ability to practice with the entire band at once.

“Before, over in Brandt Music Hall, the field was down a hill, basically down in a hole,” he said. “So we were limited to when we could transport the equipment, which was by truck the day before a game.”

He said they can now roll their wheeled instruments right out the back door of their new annex, and the convenience still stands in the event of bad weather.

Dr. Nicholas Kenney, assistant director of bands, says the short distance to the River Campus allows a larger room used for choir and orchestra rehearsals to serve as a sufficiently-sized backup space.

“We use RCC 120 as our group ensemble space if we need to be indoors,” Kenney said.

Before, if the band was in need of an inside space, Reynolds said the group would be scattered throughout Brandt.

“We had a room here on this floor, a room there on that floor, 2 rooms on this floor ... it was really haphazard,” he said.

For the band to be able to start practice before school started, the transition spanned throughout the summer, and organization took a bit of time and patience.

Jacob May, music major and student assistant for the band, said it had been a painless adjustment for the most part, yet nodded his head when admitting, “there was a rough transition at first just making sure everything that was in Brandt is now here.”

However, May loves the fact that they’re all together.

“We’re not separated anymore, and it seems like everyone’s liking it so far.”

Supplies are also easier to find when they’re stored at one location.

Motioning to an organized stack of metal music stands, May said, “There’s a whole rack of stands over here dedicated just to this building.”

Emily Hoffmeister and Rachel Paull, both members of the color guard, agree that having no hills, like they did before, is a really big plus. But Paull voiced an annoyance that many other students had with the new turf.

“Our field was better over there. This one’s really uneven, and that one we’ve been walking on for a really long time.”

But as a non-major living on main campus, she says she likes to see this other side to Southeast.

“I like that it gives me an excuse to be on [the] River Campus, because I never get to come over here otherwise.” she said.

And she makes a point. Dr. Reynolds says having a higher number of non-music majors visiting the RIver Campus is going to help bridge a gap.

“Hopefully this makes this campus seem less and less like a satellite facility,” Reynolds said. “Main campus has that mentality about the River Campus.”

Kenney said while it’s all still new to everyone, they’re still working out the kinks.

“We’re trying to see how it’s going to manifest for the long term, making sure we have good solutions to our challenges, and solutions that benefit the students.”