Marine Corps Band

"Ever try to play a cantina crowd? I don't recommend it."

- Yen Duursema, Marine Corps Band founder

The Marine Corps Band was the first public-relations unit to be fielded by the Marines. Founded by Yen Duursema, its first iteration consisted of thirty beings playing popular martial tunes and other orchestral pieces. The band received its official blessing at a Corps Day celebration, when Lieutenant Commander Duursema led them in a performance for the sitting Commandant of the Marines.

History
In 4,925 BBY the first iteration of the Marine Corps Band was formed by Lieutenant Commander Yen Duursema. A Togruta who had graduated from the Marine Corps Academy and risen through the officer ranks as a supply and logistics officer, after her promotion to command of the First Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, she began to seek out other Marines who, like her, were talented musicians. Duursema's favored instrument was the, but she was also skillful with other woodwind and reed instruments. After combing the Fifth Regiment for a few weeks, she had assembled a thirty-member band, training them in various popular martial tunes as well as some contemporary music. For Corps Day that year, Duursema's band performed their repertoire for the serving Commandant; after pronouncing that the performance was exemplary, he ordered the organizing of a limited tour for the band.

This first group of Marine musicians, playing various brass, reed and percussion instruments, visited a number of the more outlier garrisons that year, bringing with them the latest musical styles from the Core Worlds. The success of this first tour encouraged the formal creation of a musical unit, which under Commander Duursema's leadership eventually grew to include five hundred of the Marines' most talented performers. This pool was divided up into five sub-units, each a full orchestra in itself, that would visit military and civilian centers across the Republic backed up by support staff and a small honor guard. A Marine Corps band would typically perform at the inauguration of a new Supreme Chancellor, at the funerals of high-ranking officers and other officials, at dedications for war memorials or monuments to a significant battle or leader, or during state visits by planetary or sector dignitaries.