{"id":13725,"date":"2022-10-03T14:12:57","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T18:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=13725"},"modified":"2022-10-03T14:12:58","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T18:12:58","slug":"its-going-to-be-our-comeback-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/its-going-to-be-our-comeback-year\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s going to be our comeback year\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stephen Pender<\/strong> has been a lover of music all his life as he was playing melodies and a variety of instruments since the age of two years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was something that was passed down to him through his family with his pastor grandfather, who played guitar in his younger days, as well as his father, who also was admittedly a \u201chuge influence,\u201d in the younger Pender\u2019s own words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a similar passion for music Pender recognized when he first watched the Thunderin\u2019 Hawks Pep Band in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mighty but small group of musicians that was initially established in 2010<\/a>, was in a state of flux as it held itself together without a band leader. The group continued soldiering on with performances at home basketball games in addition to other events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Thunderin’ Hawks Pep Band director Stephen Pender.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat really intrigued me (about the band) was the fact they ran the program as if there was a director present,\u201d Pender said. \u201cThe discipline of the students and the determination of wanting things to be quality and just good. To not handicap the rest of our campus from having the HBCU band experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also that same dedication that led to Pender ultimately deciding to become the band\u2019s new director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was a pivotal thing that kind of made me fall in love with these students because you don\u2019t see that in today\u2019s times. If there\u2019s a lack of leadership, you see the program dwindle to nothing, or just no one\u2019s interested or engaged in the program. So, to see them determined to keep this phenomenal program running is mind-blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the reason that the remaining band members decided to keep going instead of easily calling it quits? It was simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just loved music,\u201d said senior Abdul-Hakeem Kargbo<\/strong>, a jack-of-all-trades on a number of instruments such as the euphonium, clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone, trumpet, and tenor saxophone. \u201cHonestly, we were always not that big of a band, but we still had a great sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven with our troubles during the pandemic and (while) we were having that period where we were leaderless, it took all of the student leaders to work together to try and hold the band together as long as we could until we got that new leader. I think we did a bang-up job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophomore trumpeter Lahela Hall<\/strong> said the arrival of Pender was \u201ca relief.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were in need of that (leadership) while trying to do it ourselves, but having someone there just to give us that extra step does give us motivation and pushes our dedication,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Thunderin’ Hawks Pep Band members Adbul-Hakeem Kargbo (left) and Lahela Hall (right) practice their instruments at the Ella Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In taking over leadership of the band, Pender has set several goals including growing the size of musicians to at least 50 members, and ultimately to triple-digits, while also having the band record with established artists. But one thing not on his agenda is the need to establish a culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I arrived, I expected to have pushback, but these students are so different in that they actually welcomed me to the hawk family, which makes them so special because you don\u2019t typically see that,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, to be welcomed and to be able to learn about the culture of this band is phenomenal and I\u2019m appreciative that they have kept the culture here intact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for expectations by the band members, Kargbo said he and his bandmates are hoping to make a splash in what will be their first performances of the year, which will be centered around homecoming festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe biggest thing I\u2019m looking forward to is seeing all the new people and showing up and showing out because this year I really have a great feeling it\u2019s going to be one of our best years,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be our comeback year and we\u2019re going to show these people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Pender has been a lover of music all his life as he was playing melodies and a variety of instruments since the age of two years old. It was something that was passed down to him through his family with his pastor grandfather, who played guitar in his younger days, as well as his…Read more \u2018It\u2019s going to be our comeback year\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1559,"featured_media":13729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-13725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13725"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=13725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}