Members of U.S. Marine Corps band to play and teach at UTC

The U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve Band will be performing at UTC Sept. 14-16.

The U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve Band is coming to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to perform a piece written by a UTC professor to honor those shot fatally in Chattanooga by a terrorist in 2015.

From Thursday to Saturday, Sept. 14-16, the New Orleans-based band will be on campus to work with music students and present free concerts open to the public.

2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14: free recital in Cadek Recital Hall
7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15: free concert in Roland Hayes Concert Hall in the UTC Fine Arts Center
3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16: free concert at Finley Stadium

“They reached out to me. They were wanting to do a single concert, and I talked them into doing the other stuff,” said Dr. Kenyon Wilson, interim head of the Department of Music.

On Sept. 14, band members will be on campus, working with music students, he said. On Sept. 16 at Finley Stadium, the Marine Brass Band will play at the football game between UTC and the Citadel.

The full Marine Forces Reserve Band will perform Wilson’s “Five” on Sept. 15. He wrote the six-minute piece to honor the men who were killed in the 2015 attack. In its fifth and final movement, five musicians in the band leave their seats but continue playing out of view of the audience.

The piece was a finalist for the American Prize in Composition and winner of the 2016 Carolyn Thompson and Roger Brown Community Engagement Award.

Wilson described his composition as “patriotic.“

“I’ve reached out to several veterans groups to make them aware of this,” he said.

The UTC visit marks the first time the full Marine band has played in Chattanooga since the memorial service held in McKenzie Arena in August 2015 after the shootings.

On July 16, 2015, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez of Hixson opened fire at a recruiting center on Lee Highway, then drove to the U.S. Navy Reserve Center on Amnicola Highway, killing four Marines. A Navy sailor also was shot at the Amnicola center and died two days later.

Abdulazeez was killed by police at the Amnicola center.

The five servicemen killed were Carson A. Holmquist, Randall Smith, Thomas J. Sullivan, Squire K. “Skip” Wells, and David A. Wyatt.