William Revelli

Revelli died of heart failure on July 16, 1994 at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor at age 92. He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary, and his daughter, Rosemary Margaret Revelli Strong. He is survived by his grandson John William Revelli Strong and Kimberly (Strong) Snyder, and his great grandchildren Sara and William Snyder. He is interred at Washtenong Memorial Park in Ann Arbor.

Interviewed in 1970, Revelli said: "I've been called the Vince Lombardi of Ann Arbor because I just won't compromise. I'm intolerable when it comes to perfection. Sometimes I'm even downright mean about it." Revelli added that his pursuit of perfection was about more than the music: "This striving for perfection will carry over into other areas of their lives." In December 1964, Revelli described the guiding principles that he sought to instill into his students for 36 years. In a speech delivered to the Marching Band prior to its appearance at the 1965 Rose Bowl game (and published in its entirety in the October 1994 issue of Michigan’s alumni magazine Michigan Today), Revelli said:

The admiration between Revelli and Schembechler was mutual. In a 1970 interview, Revelli compared himself and his training methods to those of Schembechler. "Bo and I speak the same language. Psychologically, our practices are the same. Both the team and the band have to perfect their fundamentals before they can do anything else. And both need proper warmups to stay in shape in the off-season. Sometimes we'll spend 45 minutes on calisthenics of the embouchure (perfecting the position of the lips on the mouthpiece of an instrument). I had one boy come back who hadn't practiced all summer. His lips were about six months behind everyone else's."

In the 1970s, Ravelli headed a school in Glion/Montreux Switzerland called the Ravelli International School of Music. High School students from various states attended for a short time and then toured through various countries in Europe.

When Bo Schembechler was hired as Michigan’s football coach in 1969, Revelli was the first person to visit him when he arrived at his new office: “I’m in my office, and the first visitor that I get, the absolute first visitor is William D. Revelli.” Revelli sat down and said, “I want you to know that I coach my band exactly the same way you coach your football team. We’ll have discipline, and we’ll do it the way it’s supposed to be done!” Revelli added, "Anything you need from me or the band, all you need to do is ask."

When the freshmen arrived in the fall of 1969, Schembechler asked Revelli to teach them how to sing "The Victors." Schembechler said, “He didn't just teach them ‘The Victors.’ He taught them Michigan tradition!” Schembechler gathered the freshmen at Yost Field House, and Revelli entered in full uniform – described by Schembechler as “a lean, short, distinguished-looking older gentleman—a band director right out of central casting.” Revelli rose to the podium, tapped his baton, looked right into their eyes and said, "John Philip Sousa called this the greatest fight song ever written. And you will sing it with respect!" Revelli brought out a pitch pipe and began the instructions. “You sing from down in here, in your diaphragm. You bring it up from down here with feeling.” Then he blew the starting note on his pitch pipe. The players started, "Hail to the Victors, valiant –" Revelli interrupted, “No, No, No! That’s terrible! There’s no enthusiasm. You didn’t sing it without enthusiasm!” They started again, and Revelli interrupted again. “No, no, no! We’re gonna get this right if I’m here all night!”

In 1961, Revelli and the U-M Symphony Band, under sponsorship of the U.S. State Department, toured the Soviet Union, Romania, Egypt, Greece, and five other Near East countries for 15 weeks. One of the attendees at the USSR concert in Minsk, USSR - according to the Warren Commission report - was none other than Lee Harvey Oswald - the reported assassin of John F. Kennedy. On other tours, the Symphony Band under Revelli appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, Boston Symphony Hall, and the Shrine Auditorium in Detroit.

Revelli was also dedicated to furthering musical education in high schools. He regularly toured the Midwest offering band clinics in small towns and big cities. In 1949, Revelli held the first Band Day at Michigan Stadium. Twenty-nine high school bands marched into the stadium and played with the Michigan Marching Band under the direction of Revelli. By the 1960s, the number of Band Day participants had grown to more than 14,000. Revelli was also the Chairman of the Instrumental Winds Department at the University of Michigan. He was an advocate within the School of Music for wind music. Aside from directing the large ensembles, Revelli promoted chamber music as well as the importance of private instruction on each student’s wind instrument at the University. Starting in 1942, Revelli offered the “Small Wood-wind ensemble,” as a way to encourage wind chamber music. The vision of professor Revelli helped bring in teachers for every wind instrument and paved the way for the University of Michigan to become one of the premiere music institutions in the United States.

In 1946, the band moved to Harris Hall. Revelli joked that the band was making "progress" as it moved from a building built in 1854—Morris Hall—to one built in 1888. The large upstairs room with its plaster walls and wooden floor provided the perfect acoustical setting for a band rehearsal. Revelli later said the "Michigan Band sound" was in part due to the perfect acoustics of Harris Hall and Hill Auditorium.

Revelli was the founder of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) in 1941. The CBDNA began as a committee of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC). In the fall of 1938 that committee, under the leadership of Revelli, met independently in Chicago. The group met again in December 1941 and formed the University and College Band Conductors Conference. The name of the organization was changed to the College Band Directors National Association in 1947. Revelli also served as a President of the National Band Association and the American Bandmasters Association, and was named Honorary Life President of the CBDNA.

Known on Michigan’s campus as “The Chief,” Revelli was known as a tough taskmaster. Revelli had a fierce dedication to excellence and drilled the desire for perfection into his band students. One former band member recalled that the “sequence of our attitudes toward him often went from fear to anger to respect to awe to reverence.’” Another recalled: “He was a tyrant who was feared by many, and an educator revered by all.” One of his students from the 1940s recalled the same emotions but noted: “I learned more about music-making in that little class ... than I had learned in my prior 12 years of private lessons.” It has been said that, if asked, “nearly every student who played under Revelli could vividly recount some memory of him; he left a lasting impression on everyone with whom he crossed paths.”

In 1935 Revelli was hired by the University of Michigan as director of bands. Revelli almost decided against applying for the Michigan job because the pay was significantly lower than what he was earning in Hobart, but he did apply for and later accept the job, a position he held for 36 years. Revelli retired in 1972 and was director emeritus until his death in 1994, Under his direction, the Michigan Marching Band was acclaimed for its musical precision, intricate formations and high-stepping style. The Marching Band under Revelli was “the first to score original music to band shows, to synchronize music and movement, to use an announcer, to do a post-game show, and the first to host a high school Band Day.”

In the 1930s, General Motors divisions, Buick and Chevrolet, paid for the band to travel to away games. In a show of appreciation, Revelli had the band line up in a “Buck – I” formation at the 1938 Ohio State game. Then, while playing Buick’s theme song, the letter "I" moved between the "u" and the "c" in "Buck" spelling out "Buick". The next morning, athletic director Fielding H. Yost reportedly called Revelli at his home at 2:00 a.m. and said: "Young man, never do that again!” Yost did not approve of the injection of commercial advertising onto the college football field.

Born in Spring Gulch, Colorado, Revelli studied violin as a child, graduated from the Beethoven Conservatory of Music in St. Louis, and received degrees from the Chicago Musical College, Columbia School of Music and Vandercook School of Music. He also played in various pit orchestras in Chicago before accepting a high-school conducting job at Hobart High School in Hobart, Indiana in 1925. Revelli transformed the Hobart High School Band into one of the best small high school bands in the country. He was music director at Hobart from 1925 to 1935, where his bands won either five or six national championships. In 1934, Revelli's Hobart band was invited to play at the World's Fair, and one newspaper reported: "William Revelli has developed his Hobart, Ind., class B band to a point where it is ranked by many with the best class A organizations from larger schools." In 1931, Revelli was paid a salary of $5,000 a year, a large sum at that time.

William D. Revelli (February 12, 1902 – July 16, 1994) was an American music educator and conductor best known for his association with the University of Michigan, where he directed the university's bands including the Michigan Marching Band 1935 to 1971. During his 36 years as director, the Michigan Marching Band won international acclaim for its musical precision. Revelli is also credited with innovations that moved college marching bands across the country away from rigid military formations. Among other things, Revelli’s Michigan Marching Band was the first to synchronize music and movement and the first to use an announcer.