As a member of the Oregon Marching Band, the largest student organization on campus other than the Greek system, University student Rebecca Beaudry is used to being part of a large group. In August, she’ll be part of an even larger group.
A senior in the human physiology department, Beaudry is one of 14 University students who will be in the 2,008-member Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra at the 29th Olympic Games next summer.
“I’m incredibly excited,” said Beaudry, who plays the mellophone, an instrument comparable to the French horn. “I’ve never been anywhere; this is, like, my first big trip.”
Unlike a band, an orchestra typically includes string instruments, such as harps and violins, so the Olympic orchestra’s name may be a bit confusing.
“Internationally, they don’t really recognize the term ‘marching band,’” said Brad McDavid, director of athletic bands at the University of Washington. “But it’s the Olympic marching band.”
McDavid is also artistic director of the Red Orchestra, one of three subgroups within the larger Olympic orchestra.
The Red Orchestra will be composed of 600 Americans, while 600 musicians from Europe, Africa and Australia

will make up the Green Orchestra. The remaining 808 musicians, the Gold Orchestra, will come from Asia.
As artistic director, McDavid will coordinate itineraries, performance schedules and music selections. Recruiting musicians is another of his responsibilities.
OMB Director Eric Wiltshire, a former graduate assistant of McDavid’s, is one of the first people who came to mind.
“I have a great appreciation for his work,” McDavid said. “So when I had the opportunity to include some northwestern students and directors, I immediately thought of him and his students.”
In order to go to China, each of the participating University students has to raise about $3,800, to be paid in five installments.
So far, each band member has paid $1,500, mostly out-of-pocket and through corporate donations.
To make the remaining payments, which are due in February and May, they plan to fundraise, starting with the 29th annual Oregon Festival of Bands.
“Festival of Bands is an annual high school band competition that we host,” Wiltshire said.
Featuring 30 bands from Oregon, Washington and Idaho, the event will take place all day Saturday at Autzen Stadium.
In addition to performing twice, OMB students will keep busy doing everything from working the concession stands to directing traffic in the parking lot.
“It’s a huge undertaking, but it’s a great recruitment tool,” Wiltshire said of the potential to find future OMB members. “I think it’s a good recruiting tool for the University in general, and the marching band, and the School of Music.”
To raise money, the University’s Red Orchestra students will hold a 50/50 raffle, which means that half the prize will go to the winner, while the other goes toward their trip.
Preparation has occupied a lot of their time, so once Festival of Bands is over, the students will focus on more fundraising.
“We’ve been so busy up until this point,” University senior Meredith McKenzie said. “We’re gonna finalize more stuff after that.”
McKenzie, a chemistry major who has been playing the flute in OMB for four years, is excited to go to China and stay in Olympic Village for two weeks. But as part of such a massive ensemble, she’s not nervous about performing for millions of spectators.
“There’ll be 2,008 of us!” she laughed. “It’s not like we’re doing a solo in front of the whole world.”
McDavid’s favorite aspect of the Olympic orchestra is giving students like McKenzie and Beaudry the chance to experience what he did as a student performer at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“No matter what I’ve done as a performer or band director, I’ll never forget the opportunity I had to perform in front of an international audience,” he said.
“I think that’s my primary goal. I’m not doing this for me; I’m just trying to provide students with this extraordinary opportunity they may never get again.”
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