Given the prevalence of honor ensembles (Lien & Humphreys, 2001) and the lack of research investigating these ensembles outside of the event itself, the purpose of this study was to examine collegiate musicians' remembered benefits and experiences of such honor ensemble experiences. Participants (N = 86) were undergraduate and graduate musicians participating in one of several university ensembles. Four of the top six reasons for participating in an honor ensemble and the top two remembered benefits of participation were musical in nature. Nearly half of all open-response comments about their least favorite aspect of honor ensemble participation addressed the amount of rehearsal time. Results indicated that should music educators wish to promote student participation in such events, they may have the most success by appealing to the musical nature of the events and a general interest in having fun, although follow-up comparisons seemed to indicate that both motivations and perceived benefits may be individual and contextualized. Suggestions for future research are discussed.