About Syracuse, its University, and its University Band

Syracuse, New York, is situated in the heart of New York State. If you visualize the state as a capital "T" rotated 90 degrees to the right, Syracuse would sit midway along the long stem. Interstate 90 runs east-west through the area, while Interstate 84 is the major north-south route through the center of the city. Even so, Syracuse developed relatively late among the cities of the former Erie Canal. So, while some towns in central New York boast older colleges, Syracuse developed as a commercial hub and its university was founded in 1870.

As students of SU history know, its founders endured economical hardships in the early years. Budgets were tight and spending always questioned. The tight-fisted approach necessarily continued well into the twentieth century. Evidence suggests that when the question of collegiate football was placed before SU's administrators, they balked at first.

If having a football team was up for hot debate, having a band was pretty much out of the question, as long as funding was concerned. Ultimately, SU's own iron Chancellor, James Roscoe Day, relented to student pressure, so long as the band funded itself. In 1901, the band was born, giving its first concert in Crouse College that May.

Self-funding was not an unusual approach. The Harvard Band is still funded with its own endowment and (theoretically) could survive the university's collapse. But SU is not Harvard, and this Ivy League funding model (as I call it) failed, as did the 'Varsity Band in 1904, not to be reborn until 1907. Funding would be a problem for SU's band until the 1970s. By then, the band would have its own budget in what I would call a more Big Ten funding model. Even so, this budget would fund one Director of Bands and two graduate students. Contrast this with the University of Pittsburgh which funded six full-time professor-level positions. For years, SU administrators would expect Big Ten results with Ivy League budgets. (The price, perhaps, of being situated between Ohio State and Harvard.)

The east-west highways, mentioned above, take one to the famous music schools in New York City and Boston, to Rochester's Eastman School, and beyond. The north-south highways take you to Cornell and Ithaca College, SUNY Stoney Brook, and SUNY Potsdam, with its immense opera house imposing on the surrounding landscape. Perhaps with these surrounding influences, or with the cost of music programs, Syracuse University has never chosen to be a serious competitor in offering music degrees. During the late 20th century, there was a small School of Music, catering mostly to keyboard and vocal musicians, but its large ensembles (orchestra, concert band, wind ensemble) have always relied on outside talent -- non-music undergraduates and even local high school musicians -- to fill out the instrumentation. The devolution of the school into something of less than a department has created a talent gap that might otherwise infuse SU bands with more people and more musicianship.

From its beginnings, the SU Band relied on "ringers" (outsiders) to fill the gaps. And, until 1970, it suffered criticism for periods of underachievement, the Kelly and Stith eras being notable exceptions.