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An Interview with UW Band Director Dr. Corey Pompey · Ask The Experts

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  Eight forty five thirteen ten Wiba Madison in the morning. It's just a beautiful
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  day out there. It's spring like weather, which means the UW Marching Band
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  and the Spring concert right around the corner coming up April nineteenth and twentieth.
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  That's a Friday and Saturday. Ticket information and tickets also available online at UW
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  Badgers dot com. That's YOUW Badgers dot com. Joining us in studio is
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  the doctor Corey Pompea. Corey, how you doing good to see it?
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  I think I ask you this every year for doctor. Am I only person
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  I calls you doctor? Everybody calls you to call you doctor. It just
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  depends a lot of work to get a doctorate. It is a lot of
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  work. Well, it's great to see you, and of course we've got
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  the big spring concert coming up just a couple of weeks from now. Tickets
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  still available. Tickets are still available. We hope that that those of you
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  who are listening, if you're interested in doing something over the weekend next week.
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  Said of joining us, it's it's a great experience. And I was
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  telling you, I love I love seeing it. I love rewatching the videos,
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  whether on YouTube or other places. As well. Let's talk about that
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  the marching band and the band itself and a little bit about your role is.
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  Uh, you know, these are very talented young people that that play
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  in the band, and there's a lot as I why, I think what
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  I'm always impressed by is the coordination and that doesn't just come innately. That
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  that requires a lot of hard work, doesn't it. It's a lot of
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  practice, more than most people real And it's not it's not as we're sitting
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  here in a comfortable studio. Uh, these kids are you know, they're
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  out on the football field that you see them on game day, walking up
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  and down, going place to place. It's it's not just an inate ability
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  to to to be a musician, but you've also got to have a good
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  level of stamina as well, don't you. Absolutely those those there's a high
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  level of physical activity involved and that starts on the very first day of what
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  we call Ridge week and it continues throughout the football season. Let's talk about
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  it. I was as asking, of course, talking this morning with doctor
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  Corey Pumpei with the UW and the Marching Band band director, and as we
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  think about this stuff for kiddos in high school right now, maybe parents,
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  grandparents listening. I know all the kids are in class already this morning.
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  But for those that are listening, what's kind of that process? For people
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  that always dream of being a badger, being part of the band, what's
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  kind of that process for them? What should they be thinking about to try
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  and try and achieve that goal. Well, there's an audition process, and
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  so if they're high school students or middle school students that have aspirations of being
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  in the band, what they need to do most of all is to continue
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  to listen to their teachers and improve the musicianship. And so that's the one
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  thing everybody can do that's going to be in the band. It's just be
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  a decent musician. Now, the marching that is not an eight. That's
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  probably the thing that levels the playing field for everybody because it's so different than
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  what everyone else does. And so we teach people how to do that.
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  Let's talk about your background. You uh, sax is your is your instrument
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  of passion? Correct? Saxophone was my instrument? Yes, indeed, So
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  when you teach you do you have a special ear for for the sax when
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  you're when you're working with the with the students or is it is that one
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  of those areas where you go, I'm a little tuned in, a little
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  extra toe sometimes okay, sometimes at least certainly you know a lot of times
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  when you listen listening to a whole bunch of instruments, you can hear things
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  that that, uh, not exactly the way you need it to be.
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  But sometimes when it comes to the saxophone, I can pinpoint it just a
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  little quicker, sure, simply because I played it. What about with with
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  the with the concept, and of course we mentioned tickets are still available?
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  How long? And I'll want to ask you a little bit about this this
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  year's program, because there's some really great highlights as always that we need to
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  touch on. But real quick, just for the planning for this event,
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  this is this is something as we talk about the students getting ready for months
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  and months and months and behind the scenes, you've been getting ready for this
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  for for quite a while as well, haven't you, doctor. We have
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  it's it's a lot of a lot of moving pieces, a lot of meetings,
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  and a lot of planning into it, that's for sure. So speaking
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  of planning a timely performance this year, of course, are you going to
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  be playing the hits you want to be a badgeer all that stuff, but
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  also music of the nineties and music of Taylor Swift too new, you know,
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  it's so interesting. The reason we're doing a Taylor Swift show is because
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  a lot of the students have asked us to do it, and so this
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  is you know, months and months before you know, her relationship was in
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  the news, but you know, it's been pretty serendipitous. That is fantastic
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  timing with that, and we think about kind of putting together that program brought
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  appeal. That's the other great thing about the about the Marching Band is there's
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  definitely something for everybody pop obviously some of the traditional stuff. I mean,
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  this is really an event for ever anybody that loves being entertained. We certainly
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  hope. So one of the things that we do when we're talking about the
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  setlist is aim is to have something on for everyone. You mentioned Taylor Swift,
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  So if you're really young, you know you're probably gonna like that a
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  lot. You know, the nineties, that's a very particular generation. So
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  hopefully we'll we'll check all the bucks. You calling us old, well,
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  I happened to like the music from the night. So no, not old
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  at all. When we talked about music in the nineties, what are some
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  of the some of the songs that are on the setlist? Are you holding
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  that holding that park back? Well, I can say, uh, we
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  will have some of the I don't know if standard bears just the right word,
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  but you know Madonna was big in the early nineties, as was Britney
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  Spears and the Spice Girls, and so you can expect to hear some music
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  from those people. Oh, that should be absolutely fantastic. As mentioned,
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  of course, tickets are available for both shows Friday and Saturday. That's the
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  nineteenth and the twentieth of April. Details online youw Badgers dot com. That's
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  UW Badgers dot com. Of course you can always stop by the box office
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  fourteen forty Monroe Street and doctor Let's I mentioned earlier a little bit about your
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  background, and I had asked you before we came on the air when you
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  started playing playing instruments in music, and the question I had for you,
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  which is did you know right away that this was something that you were that
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  you were destined to do? And you said no, not not really?
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  Is that is that the case? For a lot of musicians where they just
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  maybe pick up an instrument one day and don't really know where it could lead
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  them. I think for a lot of musicians, not certainly, not all.
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  You know, from time to time you run into musicians where it was
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  a family thing and so they knew from an early age that's what they were
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  going to do because it was always around. That was not the case for
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  me, you know, I don't come from a family of musicians that just
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  happened to be in a good school situation that had music offerings. I took
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  them and this is where it has led. Not a medicinative. If you
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  are from Alabama, well, I sound like it, though not a little
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  bit you sold me. I tried unsuccessfully to you know, speak a little
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  bit. What's that? What's your favorite Badger song? Is out of the
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  so coming to coming to the university and being part of this for you?
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  What's your favorite one to play in? What's your favorite UW band song?
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  That they just give your those only one right, even if there was a
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  different I would never say it no on Wisconsin. Next question, what's your
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  second favorite? Well, I really enjoy if you want to be a bachelor,
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  So out of the Wisconsin songs, I really do enjoy On Wisconsin.
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  I kid, I happen to think it's one of the best fight songs in
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  the country. You listen to some of the other this this is gonna sound
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  bad. So if I seem over the negative right now, I ask for
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  everyone's forgiveness. But some of the college fight songs are really bad. I'm
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  just grateful that we have one that's really popular. And quite frankly, a
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  lot of high schools around the country use on Wisconsin as the basis for their
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  fight song. So it's really a joy to play that every week. How
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  much do you and the musicians feed off of the audience interest and involvement and
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  excitement. I mean, that's got to be infectious for everybody. It is
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  infectious. It makes a difference. Now the students enjoy what they do so
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  much, they're gonna go out and do what they do to the best of
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  their ability. But when the crowd appreciates them, there's something in eight about
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  it, and it helps them to lift their performance up even more. I
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  love seeing Homecoming and that when some of the former musicians players come back,
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  and I'm kind of gonna get a chance to relive that. I mean,
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  what a once in a lifetime experience. And also as we talk about experiences
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  for folks that haven't been to the Spring concert, it's great for We talked
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  about great for everybody, and I think once people go, it's hard not
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  to go the following year. I mean, you see a lot of folks
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  going year after year after he becomes a family tradition, doesn't it. You
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  know, it is a family of tradition. And the people that love the
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  band are really loyal and we appreciate them for that. It's a great day
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  to order those tickets now again April nineteenth and twentieth. Details available as well
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  as tickets available online. Youw Badgers dot com. That's UW Badgers dot com.
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  Calso ordered by phone eight hundred Go Badgers, or stop on in right
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  at the ticket office fourteen to forty Monroe Street. Doctor Pumpey, it's always
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  great to see you, and you're always engaging, and I love what you've
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  done with the band, and keep up the good work and continued success.
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  Thank you so much. We appreciate it. News comes your way next right
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  here thirteen ten Wi