Hopefuls and veterans itching for marching
Scores audition for 150 openings with the Ravens marching band for 2017
Inside a concourse at M&T Bank Stadium, a 23-year-old hammered away at a snare drum in hopes of getting a slot with the Baltimore Marching Ravens.
A metronome marked time for Chris Clendening, who was one of more than 235 marching musicians who tried out Saturday for 150 openings with the longtime sports ensemble. Even veterans were required to audition for the 2017 band.
Observed by John Ziemann, the band’s president, Clendening showed off his marching skills.
“My mother, Patricia Murphy, was a Baltimore Colts cheerleader,” he said. “But I’ve never been to an NFL game.”
That could change for him as the Baltimore Marching Ravens, which are marking their 70th anniversary, prepare for another season.
The group, founded Sept. 7, 1947, at the old Baltimore Stadium to support the Colts of the All-America Football Conference, has over the decades endured franchise upheaval, stadium moves and all kinds of weather — and never missed a beat.
“We are right there on game days at the beginning,” said Ziemann, who joined the group in 1962. “The crowds are getting off the light rail, and we are out there, serenading them. Even the spectators from our biggest rivals break into smiles and start taking pictures.”
On Saturday, the band’s 13 sousaphone players recounted their stories of marching in the summer heat (miserable) and games in late December, all while carrying the unwieldy instruments.
“They weigh 40 pounds,” said Dave Pstrak, 53, a federal Nuclear Energy Commission worker from Mount Airy and a longtime band member. “That’s why we are all so short.”
Christine Civick, 27, a sousaphone section leader, recalled one sub-freezing December afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium. “Moisture causes the valves to freeze in extreme weather,” she said. “We wear plastic mouth guards so our lips don’t freeze to the brass.”
“I layer a lot in the winter,” said Cameron Schuller, 24, a Marching Ravens sousaphone veteran. “These are big, $12,000 instruments. People don’t realize how we suffer in the wind. These big horns toss around like an umbrella.”
The Ravens pay the marching band members for their work — $10 a game and lunch. The team also covers the cost of the instruments, except for the woodwinds. Ziemann said woodwind players prefer to use their own instruments.
Nathan Beans, 21, drove from Annapolis to audition for his fourth season as a baritone horn player in the band. He started during his senior year at South River High School. “I’ve been playing my entire life,” he said.
Terry Asher, 55, arrived at the stadium as a hopeful first-timer. She warmed up in an equipment room on the mellophone, a version of the French horn.
“My kids are grown now, 24 and 27, and I picked up my mellophone again three months ago,” she said after arriving from Gwynn Oak. “I had played it until I was in my late 30s — then I got busy with other things. The time seemed right today.”
Ona James, a 25-year-old band veteran, plays tenor saxophone. She grew up in a musical family and played at Roland Park Elementary-Middle School, as well as in the City College marching, concert and jazz bands. “I got lucky. I started music in the third grade,” she said. “I love music. I love marching.”
She said she also gets the best seat in the house on game days: “Ideal seating — in the end zone, just off the playing field.”
Although the Ravens season is still months away, it’s time for the band to start getting serious about its preparations, Ziemann said. The first practice is April 19 at the team’s complex in Owings Mills.
“Our first date is the Havre de Grace July Fourth event, which this year happens to be July 2. Then, on July Fourth, it’s the big three, the parades in Dundalk, Towson and Catonsville.”