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Music
fraternity returns to Cal State Long Beach
By
Bradley Zint
Online Forty-Niner
Calendar Editor
Phi Mu Alpha, the world’s largest
music fraternity, is establishing itself
once again at Cal State Long Beach after
a nearly 13-year absence. The fraternity
was once closely associated with CSULB’s
former marching band, the Big Brown Marching
Machine, but the disbanding of the football
team caused both the band and the fraternity
to die off.
That legacy, however, was not forgotten.
In 2003, senior music education and art
major John-David Minjares began taking steps
to bring Phi Mu Alpha back to The Beach.
“I asked around the music department
to see if guys wanted to do it and interest
was high,” Minjares said. “For
a lot of the guys, we thought that the College
of Music lacked something that could really
have the men connect with one another. The
music department has the sister sorority
SAI, Sigma Alpha Iota, and there was nothing
for the men.”
After two years of sparking interest through
word-of-mouth and sending mass e-mails,
Minjares, with the help of Dustin Barr of
the Cal State Fullerton Phi Mu Alpha Chapter,
initiated the first step towards national
recognition: becoming a colony.
“We started the process of reviving
the fraternity and until we are actually
initiated next year, we are considered in
a sort of ‘limbo’ stage,”
Minjares said. Currently, the official name
is the Phi Mu Alpha Colony, Kappa Omicron
Chapter.
The steps a colony must take to gain fraternity
status include community service, fundraisers,
and office elections. Also required is a
public recital of American music, a facet
requirement unique to the fraternity due
to its musical nature.
Elections have already taken place. Minjares
is the newly elected president, and freshman
music performance major Mark Alpizar is
the vice president.
In Phi Mu Alpha’s current colony stage,
there are 20 members and enrollment is open
for all men who are interested.
“They can be the best. They can be
the worst. They just have to have a love
for music,” Minjares said.
Vice President Alpizar added, “It’s
open for everybody…even if you play
the radio.”
Once the colony gains fraternity status,
however, membership will be determined by
a traditional pledge process involving committees
that evaluate potential members both socially
and musically.
Phi Mu Alpha’s history dates back
to 1898 at the New England Conservatory
in Boston, Mass. Founder Ossian Everett
Mills sought to improve the social life
of men at the conservatory and create an
order in which men shared a love for music
while developing virtues of manhood in themselves
and their fellows. Since then, the fraternity
has grown to over 200 chapters in the nation
with more than 150,000 initiates.
Many CSULB music department professors are
alumni, including John Carnahan, department
of music chairman, Jeffrey Reynolds, brass
studies director and Richard Birkemeier,
department vice chair. Famous alumni include
composers Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber and
even Fred Rogers from “Mister Rogers’
Neighborhood.”
The former chapter at CSULB was once the
third largest in the nation and had its
share of time-honored traditions including
the Armadillo Newsletter. According to Minjares,
the publication acquired its name when the
marching band was on tour. A band member
discovered a dead armadillo, and, with help,
brought it back to campus and kept it preserved
for many years.
Though that armadillo is now missing, the
new Phi Mu Alpha members have a stated a
desire to keep old traditions alive and
well.
According to its official Web site, sinfonia.org,
“The object of this fraternity shall
be for the development of the best and truest
fraternal spirit; the mutual welfare and
brotherhood of musical students; the advancement
of music in America and a loyalty to the
alma mater.”
The fraternity has very strong networking
capabilities to unite musicians for prospective
ensembles and performances.
“It’s a way to solidify bonds
with people you meet in college,”
Alpizar said. “It’s a great
opportunity if you look at it as a business
endeavor.”
New colony member and sophomore music major
Darren Loney expressed an excitement for
the group’s potential both socially
and as a means of connectivity.
“You suddenly have this amazing network
of musically talented people,” Loney
said. “The fact that it’s social
allows it to flourish. That’s what
makes the connections, that’s what
makes the social bonds for a lifetime—that’s
what being a Sinfonian is all about.”
“Phi Mu Alpha is a fraternity created
by people who love music,” said Shane
Reider, a sophomore music major.”“Regardless
of race, age and talent level, we are brought
together through our passion for music.
I can’t wait [until] the day me and
other brothers are singing or playing for
mentally disabled children or hospitalized
elderly.
The journey of creating friendships and
a more united America through music is a
journey that I live for, a journey Phi Mu
Alpha has packaged and gift-wrapped for
me.”
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