Vandy helps out with gift of music

While many colleges and universities in Mississippi and Alabama got to work collecting food and toiletries to send to Hattiesburg, a trombone professor at one Tennessee school decided to show his (and his students’) support a little differently.

Jeremy Wilson posted a video to YouTube of his Vanderbilt trombone students playing the Southern Miss alma mater, and after less than 24 hours online, the video had more than 3,000 views.

“As cheesy as it sounds, I really just wanted to reach to the soul more than anything,” Wilson said Wednesday.  “The best way I could think of was music.”

Wilson said he came to visit Southern Miss about a year ago and “fell in love with the university.”

“I instantly felt at home,” Wilson said. “I couldn’t even imagine something like this happening at my own school - in my own buildings.”

Wilson said when he heard about the storm Sunday night, he spent hours trying to figure out a way to reach out to Southern Miss and contribute. He decided to talk to his students, and they decided to learn the alma mater to do as a warmup.

“My students were really into and excited about it,” Wilson said.

“Most pieces of music are for everyone, they belong to whoever wants to claim them and relate to them,” Wilson said. “Alma Maters and fight songs, though, are very personal and specific and mean something only to those people it belongs to.”

Wilson said the goal was to “reach out on an emotional level” to Southern Miss, and he is very proud of his students.

“We really just wanted to reach out and provide encouragement,” Wilson said.