BX History

Founding of UVA's Bands

The first band at the University of Virginia was organized in 1908, consisting of only sixteen students. Practices were held in the basement of Madison Hall and the band made its first public appearance on April 11, 1908 at an informal public concert in front of Cabell Hall. The concert was very successful.

The band’s first football game was on September 26, 1908 against William and Mary. The band sat in the stands playing favorite songs of UVA students, including “Dixie” and “The Good Old Song” in order to encourage school spirit and enthusiasm. After their first game, the band quickly became a popular addition to UVA baseball and football games. However, the band had trouble recruiting new members and raising money for their instruments and uniforms. The band appealed to fellow students, faculty, alumni and friends for donations

The marching band at the University of Virginia was originally formed in the year of 1935.  Initially the band was very small and had a limited knowledge of marches and stand tunes, but they soon grew from a group of twenty to a group of more than forty members.  The marching band gave their first performance on February 18^th, 1935, in full uniform.  This was a monumental day in the formation of the marching band at UVA and would lead to a tradition that would carry on for many years in the future. The marching band performed at football games for many years, and even traveled with the football team to away games.

Disaster Strikes

On October 5th, 1941, the band was coming home from an away football game against Yale.  When they were about 16 miles away from Charlottesville, the band bus caught on fire and the fire department was unable to help because of the distance.  Luckily, no one was injured during the incident. There was about $25,000 worth of damage, which included damage to  instruments, music, lyres, and uniforms.

Although almost everything was destroyed in the fire, the band still performed at the next game against Richmond.  Since 80% of the instruments were destroyed, they borrowed instruments from the Lane High School Band, Charlottesville Municipal Band, the N.R.O.T.C, and from individuals in the community.  The band tried to get new instruments, but it took a long time for orders to be filled for new equipment--imported instruments were irreplaceable and the national emergency, during which the government placed demands for certain metals due to WWII made even cheap instruments difficult to obtain.

 Founding of BX and the Collapse of the Band Program

While struggling to stay financially afloat, the band continued to perform at games. The Beta Chi chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi was established in 1952. Thirteen musicians were initiated into the fraternity on Tuesday, May 6^th.  In 1964, the students of the band voted to end performances due to the monetary difficulty, and the band program disbanded, as well as the Beta Chi chapter. In the following years, an unofficial student-run pep band continued to perform.

Re-Founding of UVA's Cavalier Marching Band

In August of 2003, the University of Virginia hired William Pease as the Director of Bands.  After a year of planning and recruiting, the Cavalier Marching Band was formed.  The first band camp began on August 20, 2004, during which the band learned the first pre-game show and stand music.  The band's first appearance at a home football game occurred on September 11, 2004, at which they performed for over 62,500 fans.

Re-Founding of BX

In 2005, just one year after the development of the Cavalier Marching Band, some band members hoped to re-establish the Beta Chi chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi. The James Madison University chapter, Eta Omicron, aided the recolonizination of the chapter. On April 23, 2005, the Beta Chi chapter was re-established and thirteen members were inducted. The Re-Founding Fathers were Rachael Beaton, Deri Bush, Tim Ciesco, Chase Collins, Ben DeForest, Patricia Edmonds, Megan French, Tanya Harrison, Chris Marsh, Katherine McClelland, Kyle Singleton, Stephen Spiller, and Woody Wingfield. Woody Wingfield, who was also the first drum major of the Cavalier Marching Band, was the chapter president.

Beta Chi hosted Southern Precincts on February 21^st, 2009. Chapters from all over the North East District attended. Currently, the Beta Chi chapter has grown to thirty-nine active brothers with a membership class of fourteen this spring.