Welcome to the official website for the Southwest Mississippi Community College Fine Arts Department!
Applications
Completion and submission of the SMCC Band Scholarship application form grants permission for SMCC Band staff to contact you with potential scholarship information.
Wind Ensemble
The Ensemble
The Southwest Mississippi Community College Wind Ensemble is a spring semester course that specializes in wind and percussion instrumental literature, the majority of which has been written in the past 100 hundred years. This academic ensemble presents music from a historical perspective as well as modern works written specifically for the collegiate wind ensemble. Also included are chamber ensembles including a brass choir, woodwind ensemble and percussion ensembles.
The Scholarship
Students participating in the SMCC Concert band receive a full tuition scholarship.
For more information regarding the SMCC Concert Band contact:
Joe Raymond
- 601-276-3725
- jraymond@smcc.edu
Find Your Voice
Concert Choir & Bear Voices
Mr. Joe Elliott, Director of Choral Activities has been employed at Southwest Mississippi Community College for 21 years. He continues to help students find a place at SMCC with the Concert Choir & Bear Voices, which perform at various campus events and travels across the state to sing with other choirs and ensembles.
Choral Concerts
The SMCC Concert Choir presents annual fall and spring concerts.
Travels
Select members of the SMCC Choir travel to the Southern Invitational Choral Conference at USM in the fall and the Choir travels to the Mississippi Community College Choral Festival in Meridian in the spring. Through the years select members for the Choir, The Bear Voices, have performed solos and musical theatre selections in musical revues and theatre for young audiences.
For more information on finding your voice and for scholarships, contact:
Joseph Elliott
Director of Choral Activities
- 601-276-2003
- jce@smcc.edu
A View From The Field
The Big Bear Marching Band
The Southwest Mississippi Community College Marching Band is the largest of all the ensembles in the Fine Arts Department. It has enjoyed a renewed interest by students, administrators and the community and is currently growing. The term marching band is synonymous with football and at Southwest that connection is no different. You can find the largest student activities organization on campus at work at every home football game in the fall. Come and enjoy the excitement of the game with us!
Redline
The SMCC Red Line Dance Team is a dynamic and high-energy performance group that brings spirit and excitement to SMCC athletics and events. As an integral part of the Big Bear Band, the Red Line performs alongside the marching band during football games, energizing the crowd with precision dance routines and vibrant choreography.
In addition to their role on the field, the Red Line Dance Team also performs at basketball games, bringing enthusiasm and school spirit to the court. With a focus on technique, performance, and teamwork, the Red Line Dance Team represents Bear Nation with pride and passion.
Redline Auditions
Clinics will be held April 9 & 10th.
Auditions will be Friday, April 11, 2025.
Christmas Spirit
The SMCC Marching Band has a unique connection with several local municipalities during the Christmas Season. This year the SMCC Band will attend Parades in seven local towns; McComb, Summit, Tylertown, Gillsburg, Gloster, Liberty and Osyka.
We hope to see you on the parade route somewhere! Watch the local paper for parade dates and times.
Basketball Games
The Band participates at all of the home basketball games and contribute to the excitement in the gym. This year the SMCC Marching Band will continue the basketball tradition. Both the Basketball and Football Schedules can be found at the SMCC Athletics website.
For more information regarding the SMCC Marching Band or any of the auxiliary groups: the Redline, Color Guard, Drumline, etc., please contact:
Joe Raymond
- 601-276-3725
- jraymond@smcc.edu
Stage Band
The Stage Band has been a perennial favorite for the local community for over 60 years with the annual Christmas and Spring stage band shows. The performances are a staple of the Southwest Fine Arts season and draw a large crowd every semester. The shows are all live performances that include Instrumentalists, Singers and Dancers.
Many local families make it a holiday tradition to attend the Christmas Stage Band Show. A frequent audience member can be quoted as saying, “It’s just not Christmas until we see the stage band show.”
You can find information about the Christmas and Spring Stage Band Shows by following the Southwest Stage Band page on Facebook or by calling the Southwest Main number.
Students from all over campus participate in Stage Band and it is an auditioned group.
Auditions for Stage Band are held anytime by contacting
Lorin Lewis
Stage Band Director
- 601-276-4831
- llewis@smcc.edu
Island Culture
Steel Drum Ensemble
The Steel Drum invokes mental images of island seascapes, tropical breezes and relaxed living.
The SMCC Steel Drum ensemble got to experience all of those things when they traveled to Puerto Rico for the second time last year.
The history of the ensemble, has its roots in the Caribbean when the instruments were developed in Trinidad in the 1940s.
Performances
The Steel Drum Ensemble is the most versatile of the groups in the Fine Arts Department. Rehearsal is as laid back as island culture and performances, while scheduled in STEEL DRUM ENSEMBLE The Rhythm is Here advance can be planned in short order. The group performs at on-campus events like the annual crawfish festival. Bear Necessities Day, local schools, churches, and community events.
Science Lab For Musicians
This ensemble is ripe with experiments. The students are all experiencing something new in this class. Not one student who joins the ensemble has ever played steel drum (do you have one at home?). Students learn improvisation concepts with the steel pans, and the songs learned in class tend to evolve over the course of rehearsals, changing with suggestions from students who tried something new.
The Ensemble
Ensemble The group is populated by music students and student musicians from the band, choir and stage band who are adventurous and aren’t afraid of a challenge.
For information regarding the SMCC Steel Pan Ensemble, please contact:
Joe Raymond
- 601-276-3725
- jraymond@smcc.edu
