Though Wake Forest College was founded in 1834, it took until 1903 for eleven students to form the Wake Forest Band. The program gradually grew and in 1906 the student orchestra accompanied the Glee Club on piano, violin, flute, cornet, trombone, “bass violin,” and drums. This collaboration continued until 1927, when the band and orchestra broke away from the Glee Club. In September of that year, the Old Gold and Black student newspaper asked alumni to donate money for instruments. Devoted alumnus B. T. Ward donated and raised enough money for the band to begin holding regular rehearsals under chemistry professor Neville Isbell. By November, the band began to appear regularly at football games and festivals throughout the state of North Carolina.
Through the rest of the decade, financial and moral support for the band grew as the organization gained more recognition. The band often traveled to Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina to play for the women’s college. In 1928, the band had grown enough in numbers to prepare for a full season of performing at football games. The Old Gold and Black wrote, “At the present time the Wake Forest College Band is the only organization of its kind in the state which combines marching formations and letter formations as a part of its program given at football games during the fall.”
In 1938, the Music Department was formed at Wake Forest, with Lyman Seymour as the acting director. Seymour also taught classes and directed the choir, the orchestra, and the eighteen-member band. Unfortunately, Seymour died in the fall of 1939 and Donald Pfohl took over the direction of the band until fall of 1940, when he himself died. The thirty-one-member band was taken over and led by student F. M. “Pat” Hester, Jr.
In the fall of 1941, the band reached fifty-five members. The same year, Thane McDonald became the Chairman of the Music Department; he taught most of the music classes and conducted the choir, orchestra, and band. McDonald also set the words of the Alma Mater (“Dear Old Wake Forest”) and the Fight Song (“O Here’s to Wake Forest”) to the music we know today. From 1944 to 1946, McDonald served in the U. S. Navy in World War II and the temporary Director of Bands was Albertine Leffler.
After the second World War, Thane McDonald returned as Director of Bands (1950 was the year of the first record of the Army ROTC Band at Wake Forest, which disappears and reappears throughout Wake Forest’s history). McDonald served until 1951, when William Parham took up the post for a little over a year. In the Spring of 1952, Angelo P. Capparella, Jr. was hired as the new Director of Bands. In 1959, Capparella was replaced by Emerson Head, who served until Calvin Huber was hired in the fall of 1962.