Professor Ralph Ford, Director of Bands
Dr. Mark Walker, Associate Director of Bands
Dr. T. Adam Blackstock, Assistant Director of Bands

The “Sound of the South” Marching Band is a precision collegiate ensemble that has developed a national reputation for its quality musicianship and exciting, innovative arrangements and field productions. The “Sound” is the largest student organization on campus. The band has produced leaders in academics, student government, and athletics as well as other areas of campus life. The band entertains audiences regularly at all home games, several away games, and marching competition exhibitions.  Recent regular season and bowl appearances have included travel to cities of Miami, FL, New Orleans, LA, Nashville, TN, and Denton, TX (all in 2008), several major SEC and BCS games throughout the Southeast, the New Orleans Bowl in 2006 and 2008, and the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, California.  Over the past few years, the band has amazed and entertained audiences, receiving multiple standing ovations from the opposing teams fans, spread over tens of thousands of miles, literally, from coast to coast. Writing in the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, senior sports writer Furman Bishop offered this commentary: “The Trojans came to town…and they brought one helluva band!” Over the past several decades, the band has recorded many demonstration recordings for major publishing companies including Warner Brothers, Alfred, Belwin, Hal Leonard, and others.

The “Sound” has been featured on the ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC, CBS, NBC, CSS, FOX, and USA television networks as well as having represented the State of Alabama at the Inaugural Parades of Presidents Nixon (1969 and 1973), Reagan (1985), and Bush (1989). The band has represented the university in every gubernatorial parade since 1966. The “Sound of the South” has performed live with Grammy Award winning artists Lee Greenwood, Brian McKnight, Dennis Edwards and the Temptations, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Chubby Checker. The band’s latest compact discs: “Trojan Jams” and “Coast to Coast, The Sound’s in Town, Volume IV” are currently available and capture all of the excitement and entertainment that embodies the “Sound of the South.”

For information regarding band scholarships, auditions, or opportunities support the band program through the University Foundation, please contact the university band office by: troyband@troy.edu or phone: 334-670-3281. Street Address: 113 Long Hall, Troy University, Troy, Alabama 36082. Websites: www.troy.edu, music.troy.edu, and www.soundofthesouth.org.