USC Trojan Marching Band to perform in Japan

Celebrating 40 years as USC’s global ambassadors, The Spirit of Troy will venture across the Pacific next week to tour Japan and perform at the USA Pavilion at Osaka’s Expo 2025. In 1985, the USC Trojan Marching Band first performed overseas at the Mirage Bowl in Tokyo. The band will return to the city four decades later before venturing south through Hamamatsu and Kyoto to Osaka.

Over 100 members of the Trojan Marching Band, USC Song Leaders and USC Spirit Leaders will represent the university in Japan. The ensemble, collectively known as The Spirit of Troy, is scheduled to perform twice at Expo 2025, including a concert outside the USA Pavilion on May 24. The next day, the band will take part in a marching band festival in Aichi Prefecture. The band will also tour Yamaha’s Toyooka Factory, where the instruments the students play were made. Band members will also visit the Tokyo Disney Resort and tour Tokyo and Kyoto.

This will be the Trojan Marching Band’s third visit to Japan. In November 1985, the band followed USC football to Tokyo for their first (and, so far, only) game played internationally. Dubbed the Mirage Bowl, it was a regular season game pitting USC against Oregon at Tokyo’s historic National Olympic Stadium. The band performed at halftime and at events surrounding the game. Twenty years later, the band returned to Japan to perform at Aichi Prefecture’s Expo 2005 for the fair’s USA National Day. This year’s performance will be the band’s seventh at a world expo. Beginning with Brisbane’s World Expo 88, the band has traveled to six countries on three continents to represent the United States at these global events.

Trojan Marching Band Director Jacob Vogel will be taking the group on his third overseas trip in his fourth year leading the program. He is proud to continue the band’s worldwide legacy. “As the TMB embarks on its third outing to the nation of Japan, I’m excited to direct my largest ensemble internationally,” Vogel said. “It’s an honor to represent the university on an international stage and shine a bright light of positivity on the arts.”

Since 1988, the Trojan Marching Band has visited 19 countries and visited Asia eight times. Most recently, the band performed in Macao for the Pico Group International Conference in December 2024. Some international highlights over the years include honoring the 50th anniversary of D-Day at Normandy Beach in 1994, parading outside Rome’s Colosseum in 2006, playing a concert on Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema Beach in 2008 and performing in London’s Trafalgar Square prior to the 2012 Olympics. The Trojan Marching Band was also the first American marching band to perform in the Chinese New Year’s parades in Hong Kong in 2003 and Macao in 2016.

The Spirit of Troy is scheduled to perform twice at Expo 2025. The band and spirit groups will give concerts at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 24, at the Expo Hall “Shining Hat” building and again at 11:30 a.m. outside the USA Pavilion. The next day, the Trojans will perform at 1 p.m. at Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park in Nagakute together with the Aimachi Marching Band and URIBOU Blasters Nagoya Marching Sounds.