Yash Mahadkar grew up surrounded by music, but not the kind you blast through a Bluetooth speaker. His musical roots grew from the Indian classical music that his family played in prayer and religious ceremonies.
His mother sings and plays harmonium. His father plays the tabla, a pair of wooden hand drums, and later taught Mahadkar to play with him. Many times, his house was packed with gatherings of more than 100 family members where everyone sang and played together. Music was never just a hobby for Mahadkar. It is a source of connection.
Now he has made it his mission not just to teach music, but to shape lives through it.
“I feel like the best, most kind, and the happiest people I’ve ever met are always involved in music in some capacity,” says Mahadkar. “I wanted to be a part of making that happen.”
Rocking with the Redcoats
Mahadkar, a second-year music education major at the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music, is the clarinet section leader for the Redcoat Marching Band, and for good reason.
He jumped into the band with both feet. As a first year, he was always one of the first to volunteer for practice and performances and even led a full re-organization of the Redcoats’ rehearsal storage space.
“I had a great experience my first year,” Mahadkar says. “Now, I get to help new members find their footing and grow as musicians and leaders, just like my predecessors did for me.”
When he’s not with the Redcoats or in class, he spends most of his time teaching as part of his required classroom hours. He has worked in several different high schools in Georgia to staff band camps, assist with rehearsals, and teach aspiring young musicians.
“Music education isn’t as simple as teaching someone to play an instrument,” Mahadkar says. “We’re not in the business of making musicians or only teaching people who are going to be professionals. We’re creating a generation of people who understand the history and purpose of music and can use those skills to become leaders in their communities.”
“I feel like the best, most kind, and the happiest people I’ve ever met are always involved in music in some capacity. I wanted to be a part of making that happen.”
Music Beyond Measure
In 2024, Mahadkar added another line to his steadily growing resume: launching a wellness initiative for the Redcoats. Inspired by his mom, who uses yoga to encourage wellness in students, Mahadkar is working to bring those principles to the Redcoats.
“People don’t realize how physically and mentally demanding marching band is,” he says. “It’s a lot of work to hold an instrument, keep perfect posture, march in sync, and do that over and over again until it’s absolutely perfect.”
Between classes, Redcoat rehearsals, teaching, and supporting his bandmates, Mahadkar also leads one of the nation’s most elite marching ensembles. Since 2024, Mahadkar has been a drum major for the Santa Clara Vanguard, where he conducts full-scale productions that tour the country in an ultra-competitive Drum Corps International unit.
Known as “marching music’s major league,” the Drum Corps shows are part Broadway production, part football halftime show, part Olympic sport.
“There are days when we rehearse for 10 hours, sleep on gym floors, play in 90-degree heat, and still get excited to go back on the field the next morning,” Mahadkar says. “It’s the best kind of exhausting.”
Every part of Mahadkar’s life relates back to music, but there’s no experience that can match the feeling that he gets playing in Sanford Stadium. Any Georgia fan knows exactly how much the Redcoats bring to the games. When they play, they’re conducting more than the music. They’re conducting the energy of the crowd.
“It’s an experience like no other even when it’s August during a noon game,” says Mahadkar. “The sun is beating down on us and we’re in our uniforms sweating like crazy, but we’re smiling the whole time, because you’re making music with 400 of your best friends and what can be better than that?”
