Kiltie Marching Band

Kiltie Marching Band
David Zerbe, Director

At almost one hundred members strong, Alma’s kilt-clad marching band performs intense corps-style shows at all home football games, plus an annual indoor show. The show drill and styles of movement are contemporary and on par with competitive marching band and drum corps performances.

Kiltie Marching Band members in the 2011 Homecoming parade

Founded in the fall of 1922 by students, this unique group has evolved from its original pep band status to a contemporary marching ensemble that includes drum majors, brass, woodwinds, percussionists and color guard. Membership in this ensemble is open to all Alma College students by audition.

The band assumed its Scottish identity at the suggestion of the Rev. William (Billie) Malcolm, a Presbyterian minister from Three Rivers. In 1938, the Kiltie Marching Band first performed in its Royal McPherson tartan uniform for a pep rally before an October Football game. Today, members of the band wear the official Alma College Tartan, which is registered in Aberdeen, Scotland.

In addition to performing at all home football games and parades, the band has performed at Disney’s Epcot, The Detroit Thanksgiving Parade, NCAA Division III play-off games, in exhibition for the Hastings Marching Invitational and for public school programs in Michigan. Also, the band hosts the annual Alma College/Hohner Institute of Percussion High School Marching Band Invitational each fall. This event brings more than a thousand young musicians to campus to perform and be critiqued.

For more information regarding auditions and scholarships please contact David Zerbe at kiltieband@alma.edu.

 

The Hogan Center is the first LEED-certified building (Silver level) for green construction at Alma College and in Gratiot County. Awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute LEED is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

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Student Profile

Katie Greenough

Katie Greenough
Graduation: 2014
Major: Music

What Katie Greenough has learned at Alma College goes beyond music theory and computer skills: She also has mastered carpentry.

During an Alternative Break trip, the music major helped rebuild an Alabama town that had been ravaged by a tornado. She says the experience changed her life.

“I got to build a railing for someone’s house, which made me feel so proud that I really helped people in a tangible way,” she says. “Because it was a faith-based trip, the experience also strengthened my faith in ways I didn’t even know it needed strengthening.”

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