Carolina Band

[1][2] Most members of the Carolina Band major in something other than music, as membership is open to all USC students as well as those participating in the Bridge Program at Midlands Technical College.

[4] The Carolina Band is made up of various components, including brass and woodwinds, drumline, color guard, coquettes, and feature twirlers.

The Carolina Band fields piccolos, clarinets, alto and tenor saxes, trumpets, mellophones, baritones, and sousaphones.

Though a regimental marching band, Pritchard brought back the majorettes and feature twirlers, who had been absent from the shows of the preceding few years.

Pritchard also acquired a recording studio, more storage & practice areas and created the "Coquettes", the official dance team of the marching band.

Copenhaver created the most well-known Carolina Band pregame show, which was performed through the end of the 2010 season.

Since the athletics program joined the Southeastern Conference in 1992, the Carolina Band has undergone a number of changes.

Following James Copenhaver's retirement in 2010, Dr. Scott Weiss was appointed as Director of Bands at the University of South Carolina.

[12] The Carolina Band performed in the 2024 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the same year the School of Music celebrated its centennial.

[2] Leading up to the parade, the band marched around Downtown Columbia and performed on the steps of the South Carolina State House as part of a larger fundraising campaign to cover the financial costs of the trip.

[18] The Carolina Band starts out their traditional pregame show marching from the sidelines to the end zone, and playing the Gridiron Fanfare.

The band then performs Carolina Let Your Voices Ring (colloquially known as "Old Fight") ending in a set resembling the palmetto and gates symbol.

Then, the band performs the national anthem and the school's alma mater, We Hail Thee Carolina.

Then, they play their fight song The Fighting Gamecocks Lead the Way, an arrangement of Elmer Bernstein's Step to the Rear, making a "USC" set followed by a march arrangement of We Hail Thee Carolina called the Garnet and Black March or "Alma Marcher".

The main level building plan is organized around a series of large practice areas and dance studios along the field-side to the north.

Before home games, the band sends small ensembles to the stadium fairgrounds, Gamecock Park, and the Cockaboose area.

The Carolina Band in the palmetto formation in 2011