Here & Now

In Focus with Corey Pompey: Directing the UW Marching Band

Murv Seymour: Corey Pompey, UW Band Director. Welcome to “In Focus.”

Glad to be here; thank you for having me.

I appreciate you making time. You and I have chatted a little bit online for one of my graduate school projects, and I just thought, “Wow, that’d be a great guy to chat with.” Let me start here, man. Music, how did you fall into music?

Well, you know, I always loved it. You know, growing up, listening to the radio when my mother’s driving in the car and, you know, music in church and different things like that. So I always liked it and wanted to do it. And because of the public school system that we had, there was an opportunity to get into it, and it just kind of grew from there.

And what is it about it, about music that made you say, “Wow, this is something I wanna do kind of for the rest of my life?” Like it’s a passion, basically.

It is a passion; I enjoy it. It makes me happy, it makes me feel good. And you know, it’s mostly fun. Not always fun, but mostly fun. And so over time, I thought, “You know, this is something that I would like to do for a living.”

Yeah. And as we sit in this beautiful space at the Hamel theater here, do you get any vibes when you walk into a place like this?

Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, the ambiance of the place is just great. And when I walk in here, I know that something good is about to happen.

And it’s worth pointing out that we’re sitting in, you know, the baby space.

Yes, we’re at the recital hall, yes.

Yeah, and I see we’ve got a piano set up here like you’re gonna do something over there. What you got? [Corey laughing]

You don’t want to hear me play piano, trust me.

What is your main instrument?

My main instrument was the saxophone.

Oh, I did too. I played tenor saxophone.

Okay, really? Awesome.

And now, do you still pick it up from time to time? Do you gotta get out there and show those youngsters how to, this is how we do it?

No, no. I don’t have time, unfortunately.

Corey, you don’t have time to get out there and high step and show them how to-

Woo-hoo! If I get up there and high step, I’ll injure myself. [both laughing]

Now, one of the interesting things I thought that we chatted a little bit about was this was a job that you didn’t really plan for. It wasn’t something you kind of saw yourself falling into. How was that?

Well, you know, my predecessor Mike Leckrone was here for 50 years.

Who is Mike Leckrone? Is he, do they know him around here?

Oh, yeah, of course they know him. [Murv laughing] You know, interestingly enough, I saw him the other night. You know, he’s done a lot for the band program and a lot for the university. And so, me not wanting to be here didn’t have anything to do with him as a person or anything like that. But just the fact that any time you are walking into a position where the person before you has been there 50 years, at least I think most normal people would want to think twice about doing that.

I mean, and you’re really talking about the Tom Brady of college bands.

Mm-hmm, absolutely.

I mean, how do you…

How do you follow Tom Brady?

Yeah.

Bill Belichick couldn’t answer that question, could he? And I was afraid that I might not be able to answer that question. So for those reasons, I did not initially seek out this opportunity.

What made you change your mind?

Well, you know, I got a phone call, and I don’t want to make it seem like I was special because I got a phone call. The reality of it is dozens upon dozens of people, if not hundreds of people, got the same phone call that I got, which was, “Will you consider applying for this position?” What I know to be true is if I had not gotten that phone call, I would not have applied for the position. ‘Cause it’s not like I didn’t know it was open. You know, as soon as Mike said he was retiring, word spread like wildfire in the profession. So it’s not like I didn’t know that it was open. I just wasn’t interested in it. And so, you know, that phone call kind of changed everything.

And where does a position directing the University of Wisconsin Marching Band fit in the realm of, you know, marching band types of jobs? Like, why did you want, once you kind of started looking more seriously at it?

When I think of the University of Wisconsin, we’re talking about a very prestigious university, both in terms of academics and what it does in terms of athletics. And then I was very familiar with the band program here. Not just the marching band, but the other bands too, and the history of the band program. So there’s a significant history here that even predates Mike Leckrone when we’re talking about the band profession. And then of course, there’s, you know, a reputable school of music. And so all of those things played into my decision. And when I got that phone call, I must confess that it wasn’t an immediate, “Yes, I will apply there.” In fact, when I hung up the phone, I was fairly certain that I was not going to apply. And so then, you know, over time, you start to thinking, “Okay, it is the University of Wisconsin. “It’s in the Big Ten. “And when we’re talking about Big Ten “and marching bands, collegiate marching bands, this is the conference where it all started.” So there’s, you know, some great, for lack of a better term, prestige associated with being associated with a program like this and having the opportunity to work with a program like this. So over time, you start thinking about all of these things, and eventually, you get to a place where you say, “Okay, it would not hurt to apply. “And if they don’t call me, they don’t call me. I’ve got a job.” I was happy, I wasn’t looking to leave, which is one of the good things. It’s always nice when you’ve got a job and you don’t feel like you have to leave that job. So that was the position I was in. I didn’t have anything to lose, so we tried it.

Yeah. So, and how many strong are you marching these days? How many do you have out there?

We’re about 290.

Okay.

Is about where we are, give or take a few.

And how do you manage all that musically?

Oh, it’s tough, it’s very tough. But you know, we try to have systematic rehearsals throughout the week. You know, we, during the preseason process, we’re working on our warmups, we’re building up our chops and different things like that. So the hope is that you’ve got a system in place that allows you to be able to learn a large volume of music quickly and hopefully at a high quality.

Now, I read that Dr. Leckrone was notorious for remembering names and cities where students came from.

Yes.

Corey, is this something that you’ve taken that on, you know all the band members by name and where they’re from?

That’s a dream that I had. [Murv laughing] And every year, I say, “I’m going to do better than I did the last year.” So I know a lot of names. I do not confess that I can name every single person, if you ask me to. Faces, I’m good. Even in life outside of band, that’s an issue that I have. I, you know…

Corey, what’s my name?

Well, I know your name.

No, I wanna hear you say it though.

It’s Murv. [laughing]

I’m just checking.

But, you know, the thing is, there are people in my life that I’ve known…

Camera one, name?

[laughing] James.

Camera two?

What was it? What was it?

You getting it.

It was L, L.

Good start. Stop while you’re ahead; just leave it there.

But what I’m saying is, you know, there are people that I’ve known for years and years and years. I know the face, I can tell you everything about ’em. I can tell you conversations we had, but if you ask me the name, I’m going to struggle. And then when I’m not doing anything, not thinking about it, all of a sudden, it’ll come to me.

I don’t know why you seem like you have a chip on your shoulder about remembering names all of a sudden.

[laughing] No chip. But it is a gift that Mike had that, or has, that I wish I had.

Yeah. And does he have his hand at all in terms on things that you’re doing musically these days?

No, he’s great. You know, he is one of our biggest cheerleaders and supporters. But when he stepped aside, he stepped aside. And he’s available if I have questions or I want to know something or there’s something historically that I’m trying to find out, he’s great about that. But unless I ask…

What’s the biggest thing that he’s given you as a tip that’s helped you?

You know, it’s interesting. When I first got the job, the band directors, Mike, and I, we had breakfast, and this was my first time getting to know him and different things like that. And someone leaned over and said, “Mike, do you have any advice for Corey?” Mike shook his head and said, “No.” So as you can imagine, I’m sitting there thinking, [exhales] “Oh, goodness, well, what does this mean?” And then, after a dramatic pause I would say, he said, “No. Do what you know how to do.” And that’s been the best advice that I got from him. Because if I tried to be him, I would fail and I would fail miserably. So I really appreciated him telling me that “You do what you know how to do.” And he also mentioned in that breakfast that the previous director, or major director, ’cause there was some transition period, but the previous major, major figure in the band program did the same for him.

Yeah. I’m curious to know, in terms of the work that goes into preparing for a, you know, a performance on a halftime in front of 80,000 folks, just in person, what kind of work did you guys put in to prepare for just one of those halftime shows?

How much time do I have? [Murv laughing] You know, we start in the spring, and so pretty soon, within the next few weeks, we are going to send a survey out to the students in the band, asking them what music they would like to play. And then we’ll get the survey, we’ll go through it, and we’ll find some ideas.

That matters to you? Like, you really listen to that?

We do listen to it. Now, that’s not to say every single thing that we played came from their ideas. But if I look at the shows that we did in the fall, most of ’em were ideas that students presented. And often, when it’s really great is when I’m thinking about something or something the staff members thinks about, is thinking about something. And then you find out several students are also thinking about the same thing. And so we can kind of be on the same, the same page in that way. For example, I was really interested in doing a Frank Sinatra show, and a lot of the students were interested in doing a Frank Sinatra show, so we did Frank Sinatra. So those surveys are very, very important. And we take ’em seriously. We go through them and try to find ideas that we think will work. Again, that’s not to say every single suggestion in there makes its way into the field. And that’s not to say that we play things that were not in that survey. But there’s a healthy mix. So that happens in the spring. And then from there, we hear from the athletic department, “On such and such date, you are going to have this much time for halftime.”

How much time do you typically get, Corey?

Well, it depends. You know, for us, 10 minutes is a good number. Sometimes it can be high as 12 or as low as six or seven, depending on what they’ve got going for that week or the theme that they’re needing to push. So once we have an idea of what the repertoire is going to be for the fall, then we try to slot things in, in various places. And then it’s just a matter of creating those arrangements and different things like that. And we are doing this throughout the entire summer. This is what’s happening behind the scenes.

Yeah, and we know it’s called a marching band.

Yes.

So, which is more important, the music or the marching? [Corey laughing] Oh, the evil laugh.

You trying to get me in trouble here. [Murv laughing] I’ll answer that question very shortly. But, just so that people have an idea of how much preparation goes into getting ready. We rehearse nearly 10 hours a week for game days.

Hmm.

And it takes that much time to get ready. So if we’ve got a one-week preparation, we’ve put in nearly 10 hours. If we’ve got a two-week preparation, meaning a one-week preparation would be, you had a game on Saturday, you come in on Tuesday, and you’ve got another game on Saturday, and that’s all the time you get. If we’ve got a two-week preparation, meaning there’s a week in between, that takes about 20 hours.

But when you have 290-plus folks playing music like that, can you hear a wrong note from that one horn?

Yes.

Really?

Yes, most of the time. I’m not gonna confess that I can hear it all the time, but often, often.

And does everything just shut down at that point?

No, it doesn’t shut down. You know, they all hear it and they can correct it on their own. Now, if you hear it too many times, at that point, you have to say, “All right, we need to double-check this.” Now, you asked a question a few moments ago.

Yeah, you started filibustering.

That I said-

Oh, yes, I remember now. [Murv laughing] In an ideal world, the marching and the music will have equal footing and they will be both grand.

Why do you have that evil grin on your face right now?

Well, you know, I’m also a musician, you know, [both laughing] and so, you know, if you’re asking my personal feeling, my personal feeling is that the music is the most important thing. However, not everybody feels that way. Not even within our organization.

I also read too that when Dr. Leckrone was here, when he first took over, he was known for creating this band that was more athletic than other bands that were out there.

Yes.

What does that involve?

It involves a lot of practice and a lot of…

So bands weren’t doing the high stepping and that kind of stuff back then?

Well, you know, bands were doing the high step, you know. Bands were doing the high step. His innovation was how we do the high step. ‘Cause if you look at the HBCUs, they all high step, for the most part.

Proud graduate of Southern University, the human jukebox.

Yes, the human jukebox. But they don’t high step in the same way that we do, and no other Big Ten high steps in the same way that we do. So that was his innovation and contribution to the band, which is significant. And we spend a inordinate amount of time perfecting that and making sure that we’re able to play the music and execute the step at the same time.

Is it hard to get on as a band member here at the UW?

It’s challenging.

Lot of competition?

It really depends on the section that a student wants to be in. For example, in our band, the trumpets and trombones are the largest section, by far. There’s not even close. And so if I’m a trumpet player and I’m interested in getting in the UW band, that’s not as difficult as someone that is interested in playing clarinet. You know? So for example, we’ve got nearly a hundred trumpet players, but clarinets, they’re in the low teens. So it’s much more difficult to get in the band as a clarinet player than it is to get in as a trumpet player, just because of the sheer numbers. Having said that, you know, we try to take as many people as we can, and if someone shows musical aptitude and we have space, we’ll often train them on another instrument.

Are they all on scholarships, or how does that work?

That is a dream of mine.

Another dream?

That is a dream of mine. No, they’re not on scholarship.

Wow, I didn’t know that.

So the students in the band do it because they love it. Now, we have a handful of awards or so, but those aren’t scholarships. Those are just a donor, you know, wants to award someone for meritorious service. But it’s only a year.

Yeah.

That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about where if you make the marching band, we’re in a position to say, “You’re going to get this much money every year for four years.” We don’t have that. And that is a dream of mine to be able to do something like that.

I’d love to hear your perspective on what it feels like to be standing on a 10-foot ladder in front of all those people, you know, controlling all that music. What’s that feeling like for you?

It’s hard to describe because it’s what I do. And I don’t think about it. You know, I enjoy it, you know, you know, when we perform for thousands of thousands of people, it’s an enjoyable experience. And I love it when I feel like the band is kicking on all cylinders. And so I’m very proud of the students at that point. But I don’t know how I would describe it.

Do you, I mean, do you get that rock star sensation that you always hear people talk about? Do you feel like that the adrenaline, does that get into you and you kind of…

I try not to let the adrenaline get into me. I try as best I can to be even-keeled about what we are getting ready to do. Now, that’s not to say I’m not excited now. Well, I’m not talking about the act of leading the music and conducting the music. That’s a totally different thing. I’m just talking about, you know, getting ready to go and doing what we do, and then the band’s just performed, we’re done, and now we’ve got to go to the next phase. That’s kind of what I’m talking about. It’s just, it’s just, you know, what I do. And it’s interesting too that I’m having such a difficult time describing that because it, you know, I step on the football field every week and I know that it’s a special place. I know that it’s a historic place, I know these things. But for me, I’m just stepping on the football field. I’m getting ready to work. But then, you see someone that has the opportunity to step on the football field that has never been on the football field, in that place, in that time. And it’s a totally different experience for them.

Murv: Yeah.

And so that’s kind of what I’m trying to get at when I say it’s what I do and I do it every day and I don’t think about it. It’s probably a much different experience for someone that doesn’t do it as regularly and then has the opportunity to stand in front of those people and lead ’em. That’s not to say I’m ungrateful. I’m very, very grateful and very fortunate to be in this position. But it’s a way of life more so than anything else. It’s just what we do.

And you brought up the HBCUs and the band tradition at some of those schools down there, and, you know, having gone to one, you know, a lot of times, the band is a bigger deal than the football teams.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Or the basketball teams that they play for.

Mm-hmm.

So when I go to UW games, my friends literally make fun of me because I’m focused on that band.

Mm-hmm.

And there’s a certain level of tradition that comes with that. But I’m wondering if the UW band is getting that kind of reputation for itself. And I know it has been in a certain sense, but is it getting to that level to where the band is sometimes bigger than the sport? Careful with that answer.

Yeah, I have to be very careful. I don’t dare say that the band is bigger than the sport. However, I talk to a lot of people every week that for them, the band is bigger than the sport. And now I’m trying to decide if I’m gonna say what I’m going to say. So I’m gonna say it. You know, when everybody’s winning, everybody’s happy. But when the team loses, the band wins. And people are very appreciative of that.

I think I know what you mean by that because, you know, we’ve lost a lot in basketball when I was in college and we lost a lot in football when I was in college. But man, when that band came on, we forgot all about them losing because the music was so good.

Mm-hmm.

You know, so I understand what you’re saying.

Well, you know, we want the band to be a point of pride for everybody in there. And so we work very hard to be consistent from week to week. Well, I shouldn’t lie, that’s a lie. ‘Cause we don’t want to be consistent for week to week. We always want to get better as the week progresses. But the point I’m trying to make is we want to be the best that we can be, and we want to put a product that makes people proud. And sometimes, when things are not going as well athletically as we all would like it to be, we’re fortunate that for a lot of people, they can still point to the band and be proud of it.

Yeah. And we all know that the UW band has arms in a lot of different activities: football, basketball, hockey. Give us a sense of all the different avenues you guys have in terms of how you support some of the different sports around campus.

Yeah, it’s quite tough. We perform for six sports, football being the big one. And then you’ve got men and women’s basketball. We’ve got women’s volleyball, then men and women’s hockey. And so we try to do as much as we can for all of those sports. And now occasionally, well, not occasionally, often we are not able to do as much as we would like to do or as much as people would like to see us do. And that’s mainly because, you know, they’re students and there’s a finite amount of things that we can do. And so we really have to be careful that we’re not overextending the students.

How do you balance the playlist for those different sports? How does that differ?

That’s a good question. And so, we have a fairly lengthy list in terms of our repertoire. And so whoever is on deck for a particular sport, meaning whoever’s leading. For example, I do a lot of men’s basketball. And so when I’m looking at the set list for men’s basketball, I am looking at, well, what might people enjoy listening to? And then I’m also looking at tried and true UW tunes, and how do we mix that with newer repertoire that people might enjoy? Because if I’m not careful, I could play an entire list of just tried and true UW tunes, which people appreciate, but we’d also like to play some other things too. And so, you know, did we play it at the last game? If we did, maybe we don’t play it at this game. So it’s different things like that that go into it. But basically for all of us, meaning the instructional staff and I, when we go to an athletic event, we try to create a varied list. Now, for some of our sports, there are some things you’ve got to play no matter what. If we’re playing a men’s hockey game, they’ve got to have the theme from “Maude,” they’ve got to have “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” and things like that because if they’re not there, then it’s not a men’s hockey game, or at least not from the standpoint of the band. And so there are things we have to do to balance that or if, you know, at the football game and we do the Fifth Quarter and we don’t do “Swing Town” or something like that, you know, we kinda hear it.

You bring up a good point talking about some of the traditions that take place with the music here at the University of Wisconsin. How do you balance the tradition and also balance style and creating style of the music? ‘Cause I know you have the certain songs, “Varsity” and things like that you have to play, you’ve got the tuba line. And I remember being a kid going to basketball games and just, you know, seeing, you know, the drum kits and things like that inside the arena, which we didn’t… You don’t see that when you’re, you know, at a football game.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

But how do you balance the tradition with the style when it comes to playing the music?

I think you just do the best that you can, which I know is not a good answer. But as long as the traditions are honored, there is space to introduce new things. And so it’s much more difficult if you just throw all the tradition out and come in with all the new stuff. That doesn’t work. And so, you know, as long as everything’s being honored, then there is latitude to be able to do some new things. I think that’s the best way I can describe it really.

Yeah; I’m gonna go back to something else referencing Dr. Leckrone. When he came on board, one of the things he said he wanted to do was to create an Ed Sullivan-type of show experience in terms of how he created the music. Any thoughts on what you’re creating and what your legacy will be when we look back?

You know, interestingly enough, I don’t think a whole lot about legacy. I certainly hope that when my time is done here, that people will be proud of the work that has taken place. That they will recognize the UW Band as being the UW Band. In other words, yes, there’s a different director now, but the band that they know and love is still playing music at a high level, is marching at a high level. And so those are the kinds of things that I think about. I know there are things that I would like to do. For example, I mentioned, yes, I would like to see our students get some kind of scholarship for everything that they do, but I don’t consider that as part of a legacy that I left necessarily. That’s just something I would like the students to be able to have. It’s something that I think the students deserve. Now, unfortunately, I’m not a millionaire. ‘Cause if I was, I’d just make it happen. But, you know, I hold out hope that at some point in the future, something like that will happen. And so, you know, I’ll leave the legacy to other people, but my hope is that we’ve done good work that people can be proud of.

I’m pretty sure that if you were able to pull that off while you’re here, that 60 years from now, people would be like, “Yes, “Corey Pompey’s the one that got us those scholarships back in 2028.” [Corey laughing]

Well, I’d love to be able to do that if we can.

What’s the significance of the spring concert? How big of a deal is that?

The spring concert is a very, very big deal. For one thing, we’ve been doing it for nearly 50 years, and this is an event that has just grown over time. And I don’t know of any other major band program that does an event quite like the way we do it. Now, there are a lot of band programs that have indoor concerts, but the way we do the indoor concert, that is unique to us, and that’s what makes it special because, you know, when we are at a football game, we’re there in service of the football team and the athletic program. You know, we’re in the stands, we’re being supportive. No matter what the score is, our job is to bring the energy, keep the energy. Now, when we go to halftime and different things like that, our goal is to perform for the people and show them a good time. But at the end of the day, they’re there for a football game. When we’re at the spring concert, all of those people are there because they love the band and they’re there to support the band. And so everything that we are doing for that particular event is only in service of the music. And it gives people an opportunity to hear the band in a different way. Because when we are out on the field, A, we’re, in terms of the acoustic, we’re outdoors and it’s very difficult to fill up the stadium the way that we want to. There’s not much subtlety, you know, we can’t play very soft or people don’t want to, won’t able to hear us. But if we get indoors, you know, that gives-

our palette increases. And there are things that we’re able to do musically that as much as I wish we could do them at the football games, as much as I insist that we do do ’em at football games, there’s a practicality to it, if that makes sense, what I’m saying. And so in that event, in that particular environment, you have a chance to hear the music in a different way. And we also have the opportunity to bring in these other production elements to enhance what we are doing musically. And so to me, that’s what is, that’s what’s really special. That people are spending their hard-earned dollars to come to this show that we are putting on in the Kohl Center. They’re coming to see us, and that really means a lot.

What happens to all these musicians once they’re done here at the University of Wisconsin? Do we have anybody that’s ever gone on to become a rock star or big in music? What happens to their musical careers after this?

Well, it depends on what they like to do. You know, most of the students in the band are not music majors. In fact, very few of the students are music majors. So most of them are not going to go into careers, most of them not going into professional music careers, is what I’m saying. And so most of our students will go on to lead productive lives. They’re going to be professionals and contributors to their community. But for a lot of our students that leave, they still maintain this connection to the band. A lot of our students still play recreationally. You know, we’ve got an alumni band. They have events that they play for. They come back every year to perform at football games. There’s a group, there’s a jazz group outside the Milwaukee area. Most of those people were in the UW band. They just get together, play because they enjoy playing, and they perform publicly and different things like that. We’ve got former members of the band that perform for the Green Bay Packers on a weekly basis. So they go out and do a lot of things, but mostly not in music. But one of the things that I do hear about from time to time from the students is how significant the experience of being in the band was and how those experiences transfer or applicable to what they’re doing professionally.

And I’d be curious to know, what keeps a band director up at night? [Corey laughing]

Oh, boy.

The evil laugh.

It, well, all of it can keep one up at night, you know? I talked about the one-week preparation. One-week preparation. And we’ve had our Friday rehearsal, and you think to yourself, “I don’t think we’re as prepared as we’d like to be.” That can keep you up at night. Or we’re in Tampa for the bowl game and we’re staying on the beach. And it’s like, “I hope everybody gets back in one piece. “You know, we don’t want to be the band that had someone, you know, go out into Tampa Bay,” and the water I’m talking about specifically, have something happen. Those are the kinds of things that keep me up at night. So sometimes they’re related to the quality of the performance that we’re getting ready to do, and sometimes it’s just wanting them to be safe and make good decisions. So it’s… There are a lot of things that can keep one up at night. But I’m grateful to be able to say those situations are few and far between.

Final question, where do you take this band from here?

Where do we take it from here? We always want to march well. We always want to to play well. And I feel like we’ve been able to do that for the most part. So where would I like to take the band? We’re doing well for ourselves. The band is doing very, very well in the grand scheme of things. But there are some bands that have an endowment of nearly $30 million, which means they are in a position to not only do the things that they need to do, but they’re in the position to do things that they want to do and then some. Now again, that’s not to say we are not in a good position. We are, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a $30 million endowment so that, you know… And this might fall under the category of first world problems. But, you know, if new uniforms, if we were to say, “We want to get new uniforms,” well, I can already tell you that new uniforms are gonna cost nearly a half million dollars. Well, if I got a $30 million endowment, I can just say, “We’re getting new uniforms,” and that’s it. Well, if we want new uniforms, I gotta plan a little bit. We can get ’em; I gotta plan a little bit. So I’d love to be able to see us get at that level. And there are only two or three bands at that level. But that’s where I’d like to see us, see us go. So in terms of performing, yes, we’d love to keep the stop at the top, but we’d love to do more pictures and different things like that, and we’re always trying to improve what we’re able to do technically in terms of how we perform music.

I think it’s safe to say the best is yet to come. Corey Pompey, UW Band Director. Thanks for joining us on “In Focus.”

Thank you so much, Murv. It’s been a pleasure.