From Our Past to Our Future
- Ashe Burr
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
It has been a while, hasn’t it? After three intense shows, including welcoming so many alumni back to Spartan Stadium, we now turn towards our future members of the Spartan Marching Band, with a performance at the Grand Ledge Marching Exhibition as well as another performance in Spartan Stadium.

The annual performance at the Grand Ledge Marching Exhibition is one that the entirety of the band looks forward to, regardless of whether or not they performed in this exhibition before joining the SMB. Not only is it a chance to showcase what options are available for marching band members at the next level, but also to perform for our most supportive audience all year.
Being a high schooler and getting to see one of the nation’s premier marching bands performing for you and your closest friends can be life-changing, which is echoed by Mia Williams. Williams is a squad leader in the tenor saxophone section, and watching the SMB at the Grand Ledge Marching exhibition in 2018 “changed [her] brain chemistry.” When she went to the exhibition as a senior in high school, and Peter Clay was announcing the names of alumni from performing bands at the exhibition, there wasn’t anyone from her school in the SMB. So she “told everyone that I was gonna be ‘that guy’ and represent Mona Shores as a member of the SMB.” Fast forward to 2023, and her “younger sister was in the marching band at Mona Shores and it was [her] first year in the SMB. I was finally ‘that guy.’ Being able to represent my high school and inspire the next generation of marchers is one of the most rewarding parts of being in this organization. I’m so grateful that I got to experience Grand Ledge both as a high schooler and as a member of the SMB.”

This sentiment was also echoed by Zoe Przystas. Przystas graduated from Waverly High School, where she was a drum major during her time in the Waverly Marching Band. Watching the band at Grand Ledge performing “series, pregame, halftime, and postgame as a high school band member was not only special, but inspiring. I would always look at the Tens and know that was where I wanted to be one day. I also loved getting to see the high school alums being recognized because of how loud and enthusiastic their bands would be. I’m so excited to see my high school band at the performance, and see some of the kids that I got to help lead while I was drum major there!”
Not only do we have an additional performance for future members of the SMB, but Friday is also homecoming. The annual parade and the game that follows it give us yet another opportunity to perform for a large and cheering audience. During the halftime performance, we will not be alone, as soloists from MSU’s Jazz department will be performing alongside the Spartan Marching Band. Jazz staples, such as Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia,” Sammy Nestico’s “Magic Flea,” and Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon” will echo through the night, both in East Lansing and Grand Ledge.