UM News

During halftime of the Miami-Georgia Tech game, Judi Prokop Newman and her husband, Robert Newman, admired the new Band of the Hour uniforms and instruments made possible by their generosity.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (November 23, 2015) — The Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music recognized Robert and Judi Newman for their generous support of the Frost Band of the Hour marching band at a special halftime presentation at Sun Life Stadium during last Saturday’s game against Georgia Tech.

Judi Prokop Newman, B.B.A. ’63, and her husband, Robert Newman, made a significant donation this summer to support new equipment and uniform purchases for UM’s marching band. Their gift enabled the Band of the Hour to purchase 115 new marching band instruments and a full set of newly designed uniforms with a sleek, reinvented image. The Newmans are excited to contribute to the growth of UM’s pageantry arts under the visionary leadership Jay C. Rees, professor of music and director of athletic bands.

The Newmans were honored during the marching band’s halftime performance by UM President Julio Frenk and Director of Athletics Blake James, along with Rees and the entire Frost Band of the Hour.

“We were thrilled to recognize the Newmans’ contribution to the band program by surprising them with a commemorative white shako hat with orange-tipped feather plume, personally autographed by Frenk, James, Frost School of Music Dean Shelly Berg, and myself,” Rees said.

Judi Newman is a University trustee, alumna, and Frost School of Music advisory board member. Robert Newman is an honorary alumnus, ’08, and former member of the University’s Entrepreneurship Programs Advisory Board. They are longtime and beloved major supporters of the University of Miami, including a gift that named the 72,000-square-foot Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center. The Newman Alumni Center opened in 2010 and has become one of the most popular gathering places on the University’s Coral Gables campus.

At the Frost School of Music, the Newmans are major donors to the William Hipp Endowed Scholarship Fund, named in honor of the former music dean. They also provide substantial support to the school’s annual Winter Wonderful holiday gala, benefiting music mentoring scholarships for the Frost School’s Donna E. Shalala MusicReach Program.

The Frost Band of the Hour is the marching and pep band at the University of Miami. It is the largest and one of the most exciting, visible, diverse, and involved student groups on the UM campus, performing challenging custom musical arrangements and contemporary drum corps-style drill design.