Bailye Hendley, is a recipient of the Walter and Hannah McDaniel Band Scholarship and Alvin and Sally Beaman Scholarship.
Bailye Hendley started playing French horn in sixth grade in Jackson County, Georgia, “but I don’t think I realized at that time that it was what I wanted to do. It was in eighth grade or my freshman year in high school that I realized I understand this instrument, I really enjoy playing it, and I started getting accepted to camps and honor bands throughout Georgia.”
Now Hendley knows for sure what she wants to do: “Basically, I want to perform. I want to make my living off playing music in a major orchestra or some amazing military band. There’s not much that compares to the feeling you have when you have a successful performance, you know you’ve played well, and you’ve connected with the audience.”
Hendley was born and raised a Vol fan. “On my visit to UT,” she says, “I had a lesson with our horn professor, Dr. Katy Johnson-Webb. When I met her, I loved her. In the School of Music, they train us in performance and tradition, which are great for everything that I want to do with my life.” Hendley is preparing for grad school auditions and her senior recital, which she will cap with Bujanovsky’s España For Solo Horn.
For an out-of-state student, I was able to go to my dream school because people like Mr. McDaniel made it possible.
– Bailye Hendley, recipient of the Walter and Hannah McDaniel Band and Alvin and Sally Beaman scholarships
Hendley has also enjoyed playing her mellophone (the marching band version of the French horn) in the Pride of the Southland Band. “Playing in the Pride has been one of the most awesome things I’ve ever been a part of,” she says. “I played for the president. I got to be part of the biggest football game ever at Bristol. I came into college with a family of 400 people, and they are still my best friends.”
This year Hendley is a Black Suit who stands next to the band and acts as an intermediary between the director and band on the field. “We mark charts, wear headsets, fix anything that goes amiss, and keep everything running as smoothly as possible,” she says. She misses taking the field, especially during the Marching Circle Drill, “but I still get to play in the basketball and volleyball pep bands, which I love.”
Camaraderie and loyalty are keys reasons that Pride alumni are among the most active donors to each year’s Big Orange Give. “They are some of our most generous alumni, and they always exceed their goal,” says Advancement Director Lauren Herbstritt, who coordinates the Big Orange Give.
Band alumni and friends are also generous donors of endowed scholarships. As a recipient of the Walter and Hannah McDaniel Band Scholarship, Hendley sits down at donor dinners with McDaniel, UT’s former assistant director of band. “He talks to me a lot about my grad school plans,” she says. “He is so insightful and gives great advice. He’s a great teacher and a great mentor to me. I am from Georgia. For an out-of-state student, I was able to go to my dream school because people like Mr. McDaniel made it possible.”
