Making music

Regular attendees may have noticed a different sound at Southeast Missouri State University' first home football game. The Golden Eagles Marching Band has doubled in size with nearly 150 members.

Barry Bernhardt, the director of the university's bands, said the quality of the band has never been in question, but fatter numbers will make a fatter sound and give the band more marching options for halftime shows.

The school's Web site claims the Golden Eagles have been one of the most televised university marching bands in the United States. The band performed at the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh, Scotland, only the second university marching band to be invited to play at the tattoo. In 2008, the Golden Eagles will go back for a five-week production and will perform more than 30 times for more than 217,000 people and in a BBC broadcast that will be seen by more than 100 million viewers worldwide.

Increasing the size of the band has been a priority for Bernhardt for several years. This year the administration agreed to offer students more incentives.

The extra funding will help Southeast recruit talented musicians at this year's Greater St. Louis Marching Band Festival on Oct. 27. With the exposure the university is getting in 2008, and with the opening this year of the school's performance arts campus, this was a good time to address the incentives.