This marching band season, band directors Ryan Middleton and Brian Zeglis aren’t the only teachers working on the show, “The Music of Queen.” Drumline Technician Ashley Hatland and Brass Specialist Drew Bonner are bringing their skills to the students of the Trojan Marching Band. 

Currently a student at the University of Iowa, Ashley Hatland is helping out the Trojan Marching Band’s drumline this year. She’s a third-year student double majoring in music education and percussion performance, so when her teaching assistant told her about the job, it only made sense to apply.

Hatland has been a percussionist since fifth grade, and her experiences in percussion throughout school inspired her to pursue it in college and beyond.

 “I chose it because I had a lot of good instructors when I was young and they inspired me to pass it along,” Hatland said.

Hatland helps teach and run the drumline during warmup and rehearsal, applying her knowledge from her high school marching band, the Hawkeye Marching Band and her major.

She used to play bass drum for the Hawkeye Marching Band, and before that, she played for the Tipton High School marching band. Currently, she’s a member of the U of I’s Symphony Band, Percussion Ensemble and Iowa Steel Band. 

Hatland’s favorite part of her job is the students she teaches and helps with.”I think I’ve made a lot of good connections. I feel like I can actually talk to the students now,” she said. 

Bass drummer Max Somerville ’28 said, “She helped me with marking time in place because I didn’t do a ton of that last year and now I’m doing it a lot now.”

Hatland’s experience helps her teach bass drums especially well. “She also helped me with where to hit the bass drum to get the best amount of sound so that does make it a lot easier to play.”

The job allows Hatland to get experience in music education, but it also allows her to pass her passion along to her students, just like her instructors did for her.

While finishing up his Doctorate of Musical Arts in tuba/euphonium performance and pedagogy, Drew Bonner is also working with the Trojan Marching Band as a brass specialist and drill writer this marching band season. 

Even before Bonner started playing the euphonium in the fourth grade, he was interested in music. “I was always a musical person, and I played drums and piano, took piano lessons and learned guitar from the internet and all kinds of other stuff like that,” Bonner said.

This passion for music persisted throughout his secondary and college education. Bonner received a master’s degree in tuba and euphonium performance from the University of Texas, then headed to the University of Iowa for his doctorate degree. “I’ve always wanted to be a college professor. I really like working with college students and helping them find a path in music,” Bonner said.

Bonner’s major in tuba and euphonium means that he can both play and teach those instruments, but he also has a secondary area in conducting athletic bands, pep band and marching bands. 

Through courses like marching band techniques and conducting seminars, he learned “all of the drill writing and learning about how to order uniforms and all the kind of logistical things that you don’t really think about,” Bonner said.

Bonner is currently “all but dissertation,” in terms of receiving his degree, meaning he doesn’t have any classwork except for his dissertation, the last requirement of his doctoral program. However, he used to participate in the Iowa Symphony Band, the two-euphonium ensemble Collegium Tubum, Iowa Concert Band and the university band as not just a musician, but also a teacher, conductor and composer. 

Outside of concert band, he wrote drill and arranged music for the Hawkeye Marching Band, a skill he’s brought to the Trojan Marching Band. Bonner wrote the drill for the TMB’s show, “The Music of Queen.”