With Super Bowl Sunday right around the corner, the Syracuse University Marching Band is making its final preparations for a performance of a lifetime.

The band will play a pre-game show with Rutgers University’s Marching Scarlet Knights at 6 p.m., a half an hour before kickoff, in front of 83,000 fans in MetLife Stadium. The songs, arranged by both SU and Rutgers directors, salute the sounds of the New York-New Jersey area with numbers by Jay Z, Bruce Springsteen and Frank Sinatra.

Syracuse announced that the marching band would perform at the Super Bowl in December, but didn’t seriously begin to practice until the spring semester began, said Allan Duso, a drum leader in the marching band. He added that the band lost members who graduated or decided to study abroad. To compensate, the band brought in other members who were available to rehearse or returned from studying abroad.

“Not everyone’s there all the time, but we’ve made do, and by now we sound great and we’re going to look really great too,” said Duso, who is also a senior television, radio and film major. He added that the band’s sound “has not wavered,” and the performance will match their usual style.

Randall Brown, a sousaphone player, said although they have been practicing for a while, the performance will reflect the fundamentals they have been practicing all year. Though the two bands have been practicing in their own ways, SU and Rutgers will be working together hours before Sunday’s game, said Brown, who is also a freshman political science major.

Amanda Greenbacker, a freshman music education major and piccolo player, said the performance will present some challenges to the band. Unlike previous performances that featured collegiate marching bands, SU will be playing music and running drill in tandem with Rutgers.

“There will be over 400 band members on the field when we combine with Rutgers, so actually moving around on the field becomes a lot tougher,” she said.

Time management has been a challenge that Greenbacker said the band members don’t typically face in the fall. Band members adjust their class schedules to accommodate rehearsals, but the post-season surprise brought on complications.

“Balancing class work, homework and rehearsals over these past couple weeks has definitely been a challenge,” she said. “Everyone is very responsible — we have to be. Everyone knows what needs to be done and we do it, it’s just how it is.”

In spite of new obstacles, the marching band is looking forward to Sunday, Brown said. He added that the game will reunite him with a friend he knows from high school, who is performing in Rutgers’ band.

“I’ve come to respect this band even more than I originally did,” he said. “We are on a whole other level of entertainment now, and people are going to be looking at us in the future.”

Published on January 30, 2014 at 1:58 am