Blugold Marching Band plays for pope
during tour of Italy and Greece

January 2008

Read e-mail messages from Blugold Marching Band members sharing details of their Italy/Greece tour. See Italy/Greece tour photos. See more photos and information about the tour on the Blugold Marching Band Web site. Band member Josh Myers also has posted online photos from the trip.

The UW-Eau Claire Blugold Marching Band, directed by associate professor of music Dr. Randal Dickerson, received a special invitation to perform for Pope Benedict XVI and an estimated crowd of 100,000 people during the pope's 2008 New Year's Day blessing in St. Peter's Square in Rome.

A total of 120 members of the Blugold Marching Band participated in the New Year's Day performance, which was part of the band's tour of Italy and Greece from Dec. 28-Jan. 6. Other student performances during the tour included the Rome New Year's Day parade and stage shows at the Duomo in Florence, on the Via della Conciliazione in Rome, and at Syntagma (Constitution) Square in Athens.

The band was well received, Dickerson said.

"The students were overwhelmed with the crowds and with the response," he said. "They were treated like rock stars everyplace we performed."