Table of Contents
March 26, 2022
By Alaina Uricheck ’24
Instructor, performer, accompanist. These are professions you would count on for a graduate with a songs degree. However, quite a few Susquehanna College students have preferred yet another path and joined the ranks of army musical ensembles.
Airman 1st Class Benton Felty ’17Airman 1st Course Benton Felty ’17 majored in corporate communications and theatre functionality with a slight in business enterprise administration. He had a thriving job in leisure until eventually the Covid-19 pandemic finished his “forward momentum.” A tip from a fellow SU new music alumnus led Felty to turn out to be a very pleased member of the U.S. Air Force Heritage of The us Band, in which his major ensemble is Whole Spectrum, a modern rock/pop group concentrated primarily on neighborhood outreach and recruitment.
Felty reported his assistance encompasses “integrity to start with, support just before self and excellence in all we do.
“It implies pursuing my aspiration of a steady job in songs and leisure merged with my appreciate of the United States of The usa,” Felty explained. “And it means the balance to have a family, which I’ve only dreamed of in the amusement market.”
Musicians provide in all branches of the army, but you do not will need to be a member of the armed forces to audition for a military ensemble. If your audition is prosperous, you will indicator your agreement for enlistment and get a projected departure day for simple education.
Retired Employees Sgt. Aaron Quick ’18Contrary to his fellow tunes alumni, retired Workers Sgt. Aaron Quick ’18 came to SU soon after his occupation as a musician in the Marine Corps from 1995 to 2006, followed by his support in the Military from 2007 to 2016. After not being in a university classroom in over 20 several years, Fast did not know what to anticipate. But he was pleasantly amazed at how welcoming the SU group was and he graduated with a lot of new good friends and colleagues. He went on to generate a master’s degree in music principle and composition and currently works as a composer and researcher.
Doing work as a military musician authorized Rapidly to see the planet. He travelled to Korea twice, investing two weeks in Seoul for a 50th anniversary celebration of the Incheon Landing and frequented the DMZ wherever he crossed into North Korea. When in Okinawa, Quickly frequented Iwo Jima, deemed a sacred web page for the Maritime Corps. He was also lucky to perform higher-profile occasions, which includes the 2004 American Soccer Conference championship video game in Pittsburgh.
“I had these kinds of a one of a kind working experience as a army musician. I was able to spend a calendar year in Okinawa and though there played on mainland Japan,” Quick claimed. “But the most significant and vital musical mission I executed was throughout my deployment to Afghanistan in 2013 with the 101st Airborne Division.”
Employees Sgt. Julia Amadee ’10Staff members Sgt. Julia Amadee ’10 majored in tunes functionality and French and carried out as a piccolo participant in quite a few Montana orchestras whilst also doing the job as a youth residence counselor ahead of she auditioned for the U.S. Army Outdated Guard Fife and Drum Corps.
“Seeing the Corps’ exhilarating effectiveness at the 2015 National Flute Conference in Washington, D.C., and speaking with [my former piccolo teacher] about her optimistic working experience with the team motivated me to implement,” Amadee stated.
“Becoming a member of the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps has been a dream arrive accurate,” she stated. “It has allowed me to merge my like of new music with a profession of assistance to my nation in these a unique device.”
Amadee considers herself a “musical ambassador” for the U.S. armed forces.
“When I interact with audience users following a functionality, I check out to try to remember that this may be the very first time that they have individually satisfied a person in the military and aim to depart a favourable effect,” she explained. “I simply cannot envision a additional meaningful musical occupation, and I am extremely happy to be a part of the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.”