Fall 2024 Edition
Digging into the history of the Hawkeye Marching Band
A brief history of school songs at the University of Iowa
The University of Iowa’s Learn more about the peculiar history of Iowa’s many school songs, including “Old Gold,” “On Iowa,” “The Iowa Fight Song,” “Roll Along, Iowa,” and “Alma Mater, Iowa.”
In step with the Hawkeye Marching Band: headliners and collaborators
The Hawkeye Marching Band has welcomed guest artists throughout its storied history. Check out highlights from these collaborations, from the band’s earliest days to today.
On Iowa! a history of The University of Iowa Marching Band, 1881-2012
Want to know more about the HMB’s storied history? Look no further than Dr. Samuel Carter Biggers Jr.’s 2013 dissertation, “On Iowa! a history of The University of Iowa Marching Band, 1881-2012” which tracks the band from its early days as a military ensemble to the bowl games, Golden Girls, drum majors, and directors of the 20th and into the 21st century. This document is available open access through Iowa Research Online, the University of Iowa’s institutional repository.
Highlights from Fierce

“Fierce” embodied the collaborative spirit at Performing Arts At Iowa and showcased the tremendous talents of our music faculty and students! Produced by the School of Music, the Performing Arts Production Unit, and Hancher Auditorium, “Fierce” demonstrated the power of creative collaboration for students, faculty, and staff at the University of Iowa.
Watch our video to see how “Fierce” came to life at the University of Iowa.

Just two years after Dr. William Menefield joined the UI music faculty in 2020, his first opera composition, Fierce, premiered in Cincinnati. He never imagined two of his new colleagues, School of Music director Tammie Walker and Hancher executive director André Perry, would be sitting in the audience, dreaming up plans to bring the production to Hancher.
Learn more about Dr. Menefield’s journey, the creation of Fierce, and the process of bringing this empowering performance to the Hancher stage.
Recent Grads

2024 DMA grad Kara Metzger—along with students HMB co-manager Jake Greenlee on trombone, fellow co-band manager Nick Kamp on tuba, Avery Arens on our majestic Klais Organ, oboist Sam Hoying (HMB alto sax), and Ani Perez-Brennan (HMB Drumline)—all shown in the Concert Hall of Voxman Music Building in the Iowa Women’s Basketball team’s “Welcome to the Show” video.

The Daily Iowan shined their spotlight on Christian Frankl (2023 BA) during his senior year as a triple-major and our HMB Drum Major.

2024 PhD grad Ramin Roshandel collaborated with Associate Professor Dr. Jean-François Charles to record an album called Jamshid Jam, a collision of Persian classical music and live electronic sampling and re-mixing.

(2024 MA, Music Therapy) was featured in the UI’s “Dare to Discover” series on student research. Read about Naomi’s research using music therapy to provide arts-based mental health and wellness services for high school students of color
Becca Swanson (2022 BA in Music Education) worked with Dr. Mary Cohen in the Iowa Medical and Classification Center (better known as Oakdale Prison), and called that experience the most meaningful part of her education. In December 2019, they performed a concert at Oakdale titled “Remember: Be Love,” which was named after a song she composed alongside an incarcerated individual.
Donor Spotlight
2023 Distinguished Alumni Award Lou Crist
Watch past UI Distinguished Alumni Award honoree Lou Crist share stories from more than four decades as the voice of the Hawkeye Marching Band.
Faculty Profile
Rock star faculty: Sam Young
After joining the School of Music as a visiting professor in 2021, Sam Young was literally a rock star. Read more about Sam’s life as a rock musician before the University of Iowa.