At one point back during the early and mid 2000's Langston's band program was beginning to really make a name for themselves in the band world, exposure on the internet had a lot to do with getting them out there. They were gaining positive notoriety in the band world the same way Miles did during that same time. They put on a couple of great shows at Honda then moreless vanished off the scene.
Does anyone know what happened to their program?
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Hmm... give me a minute to think and summarize it. I know that I used to go to Langston for Upward Bound for 4 years, so being around the music hall so much gave me enough of an idea of what occurred.
Apparently the director of the band was caught misappropriating funds, almost the same as Valley's director in the early 2013-14 season. So the director was released and the band I've grown so used to seeing had all but disappeared.
It was rather sad actually, that director had his hand in a lot of schools around the state, especially in the Oklahoma City and Spencer area. Schools like Douglass, Star Spencer, Millwood, Northeast, and even Booker T (a school in Tulsa) were using the band camps to get their students up to snuff. But the year he went, the schools around the state suffered just as bad.
Before I graduated from Harding Fine Arts Academy, I was in Northeast Academy of Health Science and Engineering (AKA the prison school on NE 33rd and Kelly Ave, due to it's appearance). I was a member of the drumline there before I transferred to Harding. Every damn drum section in the state wanted to march like Langston. Half of the cadences you heard were from Langston. Star Spencer's band was even known to be mini-Langston at the time I was at Northeast. We'd always say Douglass sounded like ass, but their drumline was nothing to fuck with.
All of that's but a distant memory, black marching programs in the Oklahoma City area haven't been strong since he was released.
So there you go, from an Okie's perspective.
Here's 2007, ten years back.
Here's 2017, this ongoing season
The program is trying to recover, but it's so much to recover. Recruitment's down and most of the other high school studens, like myself, opted to go to other institutions.
It's turning around. The sound is there and there's a lot of early interest this year (moreso than in the past). The school is thriving (#3 in the state in grant dollars-ahead of schools with enrollments of nearly 18000) and the band is on the way back up, too. It also helps to be the most-affordable Historically Black University in the nation (unless you are a NC resident and attend ECSU).