NCCU Sound Machine selected to perform at the 2011 Tournament of Roses Parade

Honda Announces Participants for it’s 2010 Battle of The Bands

Three months ago, 45 marching bands from the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) began the journey down the “Road to the Honda,” all competing for a spot in the 2010 Honda Battle of the Bands (HBOB) Invitational Showcase.

       Out of 45 competing marching bands from the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), eight have been chosen to perform in January at the 2010 Honda Battle of the Bands (HBOB) Invitational Showcase.

       Representing varied music and performance styles ranging from precision to high-stepping, the eight headlining bands are:

• Albany State University “Marching Rams” (Albany, Georgia)

• Clark Atlanta University “Mighty Marching Panthers” (Atlanta, Georgia)

• Florida A&M University “Marching 100” (Tallahassee, Florida)

• North Carolina Central University “Marching Sound Machine” (Durham, North Carolina)

• Prairie View A&M University “Marching Storm” (Prairie View, Texas)

• Southern University “Human Jukebox Marching Band” (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

• Tuskegee University “Marching Crimson Pipers” (Tuskegee, Alabama)

• Virginia State University “Trojan Explosion Marching Band” (Petersburg, Virginia)

       On January 30, 2010, the bands will perform for a crowd of 60,000 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and prove why they are the best of the best.

      Marking its eighth year, the Honda Battle of the Bands is the only national scholarship program that showcases an important facet of HBCU heritage and culture – music education.

       The eight winning band programs chosen to participate in this year’s Invitational Showcase will be awarded $20,000 by American Honda for their music programs in addition to the $1,000 grant they received for participation in the pre-qualifying fall campus event tour. Through this program Honda is awarding a total of $205,000 in scholarships to HBCU music programs for the 2009-10 academic year, and since the beginning of the program, has awarded grants in excess of $1 million.

SU band hazing victim sues school

Southern University marching band hazing victim Marcus Heath of Georgia and his mother, Marilyn, are suing the college for liability in last year’s off-campus initiation event.

Heath and two other freshman band mates were struck repeatedly with 2-by-4-inch boards during initiation in an off-campus East Baton Rouge Parish residence prior to last year’s Bayou Classic football game, according to arrest records.

Heath and one other fellow French horn player were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and later released, police documents stated. The third victim withdrew from the hazing before injuries escalated.

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NCCU Sound Machine to sound off in 2011 Rose Parade

By Neil Offen  (The Sun-Herald)

DURHAM — When Roy Ector, drum major with the N.C. Central University marching band, got the news, he called his mom.

“We weren’t supposed to tell anybody at first, but I had to tell her,” Ector said. “Now she’s telling me, she’s going to go to California, too.”

That’s because Ector and the rest of the NCCU Marching Sound Machine are heading for the Golden State and the Rose Bowl. The band has been chosen to march in the 2011 Tournament of Roses Parade.
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