The University of Michigan Symphony Band is a leader of the wind band movement in America. Through recordings and performances in prestigious venues such as New York's Carnegie Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Beijing's National Center for the Performing Arts, and La Scala, the UM Symphony Band is known for its professional quality of performance and keen sense of "trailblazing" in building repertoire.

Under the baton of Michael Haithcock since the fall of 2001, the Symphony Band has won praise from a wide range of audiences, composers, and critics. Reviews of recordings on the Equilibrium label have hailed the band's "breathtaking precision" as well as its "detailed, polished, and expressive phrasing." Critics have also praised the band's "organlike sound quality as something to savor." Professional standards of performance combined with the highest artistic standard in repertoire is the hallmark of the University of Michigan Symphony Band.