< PreviousPioneer (left, Ron Walloch) has added an audition workshop at Butler University in Indianapolis on December 16. Registration is now open. http://www.Pioneer-Corps.org.Mitch Rogers, former drill designer for the Bluecoats, Troopers and The Cavaliers, is the new visual designer for Jersey Surf (left, Pat Chagnon). Other new staff members on the creative team include Program Coordinator Thomas Kershaw, Color Guard Designer Rob Watson and Percussion Arranger Bobby Scott. http://www.jerseysurf.org.Carolina Crown (below, John Matter) revealed the 18 members of its 2018 percussion staff, led by Director and Arranger Thom Hannum, Caption Supervisor Travis Peterman and Front Ensemble Supervisor and Arranger Jim Ancona. http://www.carolinacrown.org/.Heat Wave (right, Chris Maher) posted its roster of brass staff members to be led in 2018 by Caption Head Stathis Linardos. http://www.HeatWaveDrumCorps.com.Spirit of Atlanta (right, John Matter) announced its color guard staff for the 2018 season. The group will be led by Caption Head Chance Livar. http://www.SpiritDrumCorps.org.The Colts’ (left, John Matter) entire percussion team, led by Percussion Caption Head and Battery Arranger Ben Pyles, will be returning for the 2018 season. According to Pyles, “There's something special about this team and I think we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of our potential.” http://www.Colts.org.FJM_Halftime Mag ads.indd 267/7/17 8:37 AMBlue Stars (below, Richard Wersinger) announced returning brass staff members. “We’re so pleased to see such continuity in our brass staff,” Caption Head Ward Miller said. http://www.bluestars.org.The Crossmen (below right, Chris Maher) have added a Drum Major eXperience camp in San Antonio the weekend of January 26-28 for those interested in auditioning for one of the corps’ drum major positions. http://www.crossmen.orgSouthwind (middle left, Chris Maher) has announced their design and captions teams for the 2108 season The are Dell Trotter, program coordinator and brass caption head, Visual Caption Head Nathan Shuffitt, Guard Caption Head Marsha Foster and Percussion Co-Caption Head Elanders Frazier. Music will be penned by Percussion Arranger Elanders Frazier, Front Ensemble Arranger Garrett Lambert, Brass Arranger Justin Williams,and Digital Soundscape Arranger Wil Richmond. Rounding out the team are Assistant Corps Director and Program Manager Jamar Dumas, Program Consultant Fred Feeney, Visual Consultants Rodney Bailey and Phil Michanowicz, and Drill Writer James Gow. http://www.southwind.org.Legends (middle right, Ron Walloch) revealed the members of the corps’ 2018 visual staff who will be led by returning Visual Supervisor Lindsey Schueller. According to Executive Director Ibe Sodawalla, “Our visual program has grown exponentially under Lindsey’s leadership.” http://www.legendspaa.org/.Madison Scouts (above right, Pat Chagnon) welcome Sean Womack as front ensemble arranger and Tony Lymon as sound designer for the corps’ 2018 season. http://www.MadisonScouts.org.Pacific Crest (above, Russell Tanakaya) has been selected to march in the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 2019, capping off the corps’ 25th anniversary season in 2018. http://www.Pacific-Crest.org.Music City (left, Mary Scafidi) is inviting alumni to join in the Nashville and Franklin, TN, Christmas parades on December 2. The Nashille parade will be broadcast nationwide on Christmas Eve. http://www.MusicCityDrumCorps.org.Meet the members of The Cadets’ (left, Richard Wersinger) 2018 brass staff. “I am so excited that we are returning such a veteran and seasoned staff,” Brass Caption Supervisor Drew Shanefield said. “Coming off the heels of our first season together, we are ready to get back to work.” http://www.YEA.org.Mandarins (below, Chris Maher) have formed a team of .professionals and interns to keep corps members healthy during the year. The Mandarins Health and Wellness Team will be co-directed by Kimberly Wong, PT, and Daniel Fong, O.D. According to Wong, “We aim to focus on the total being;, including a complete medical history, training protocols for injury prevention, staff education and on-site care for members as needed.” http://www.Mandarins.org.ps.Louisiana Stars (left, John Matter) will be holding educational experience camps for all sections at three Louisiana sites between Christmas Day and New Years Eve. http://www.LouisianaStars.org.Oregon Crusaders (right, John Matter) announced a new partnership with TAMA Marching for the 2018 season. The company will be outfitting the organization’s drum corps and indoor winter percussion line. http://www.oregoncrusaders.org/.Seattle Cascades (left, Russell Tanakaya) continue to add to its leadership team, including returning Tour Director Jeremy Bennett, Percussion Caption Supervisor Micah Brusse and Color Guard Caption Supervisor Brett Harbur. http://www.SeattleCascades.org.Columbians (right, Russell Tanakaya) announced Chris Grant has been named the new corps director and the schedule of audition and rehearsal dates which will kick off December 15-17 at a to-be-announced location. http://www.columbiansdrumcorps.org/.The Troopers (right, Russell Tanakaya) have added an audition site in Indianapolis on December 2 for prospective brass and color guard members. Other camp locations are in Massachusetts, Texas, Idaho and Wyoming. Creatively, the corps will look to Adam Sage as the artistic director. http://www.troopersdrumcorps.org.Spartans (right, Pat Chagnon) made a number of key additions to the corps’ instructional staff including its brass, percussion and color guard sections. http://www.spartansdbc.org/.Genesis (left, Pat Chagnon) welcomes Carla Burgess-Tomsa as color guard director for the corps’ 2018 season. http://www.GenesisDBC.org.Bluecoats (below right, Dan Scafidi) announced that the corps’ December 3 audition camp scheduled for California will be located in Laguna Hills. http://www.Bluecoats.com.Both Vanguard Cadets (middle left, Ron Walloch) and their parent corps, the Santa Clara Vanguard (bottom right, Chris Maher) have instituted a unified strategy of teaching brass players. According to Vanguard brass caption manager Chip Crotts, “Our main goal is that, regardless of age level or experience, the members of SCV and SCVC will receive the same level of training and education across the board.” http://www.SCVanguard.org.Rebekah Terry has been named the new director of Blue Devils B (bottom left, Chris Maher) for 2018. Longtime BDB director Rick Odello will become a senior advisor to the corps while also continuing in his role as director of Blue Devils C. “It is an honor to take on this role with none other than Rick Odello, a DCI Hall of Famer, as a mentor,” Terry said. http://www.BlueDevils.org. n n nHats off to WinkyThis story was sent in by Chuck Smith of the Archer-Epler Musketeers:1966 was not a great season for the Archer Epler Musketeers (below, 1964, Moe Knox). Our lead soprano section was dependent on several members of the USMC Drum and Bugle Corps, who could never predict when they might be sent out on a Marine Corps weekend bivouac. “Archie” was in Herkimer, NY, waiting for the soprano line to show up when we got word that they would not be coming. That left us with only two lead sopranos, but our leader, Bill “Rip” Bernert could play lead horn if he didn’t have to be drum major. Shortly before the performance, Rip walked on with Walt “Winky” Winkleman (top left at the May 1963 Carnegie Hall concert sponsored by Drum Corps News, photo by Moe Knox), resplendent, in his white Skyliners drum major uniform. Yes, Rip had talked with Winky. It was seldom heard of in those dog-eat-dog competitive days of the DCA for one corps to actually help another. But on the other hand, a good friendship had built up between “Archie” and “Sky,” and what the heck, “Archie” was out of the contest anyway. So, history was made that night. Walt Winkleman, the legendary drum major of the New York Skyliners, stood in front of the Archer-Epler Musketeers in the end zone starting line and stage-whispered, “What do I say, Rip? . . . (OK) in his New York accent. “Mauk time Mauch!” and so it went through the show. “What’s next Rip?” . . . (OK) . . . “Horns Up, one, toot, tree, faw.” Archie came in sixth place out of six, but the crowd loved our performance. The second-place Reading Buccaneers tried to protest Winky for marching in two corps that night, but the judges found no rule against it, so the Skyliners prevailed and won the show. Wake me when it’s overThe 1959 American Legion Nationals finals contest in Minneapolis, MN, featured a few (or a few too many) exhibitions before the evening drum corps festivities finally got underway. In exhibition were the senior color Theamazingworld of drumcorpsby Brian Tolzmann, Drum Corps World staff (jbtolzmann@gmail.com)guard champion Commonwealth Edison (left, 1948), the junior color guard champion Kankakee Shadows (below, 1962, American Legion Nationals), the champion Commonwealth Edison firing squad, the Joliet senior band champion and the junior band champion Racine Junior Elks.The Monroe GirlsThe Monroe Girls Drum & Bugle Corps (left) from Monroe, GA, was a popular parade and exhibition corps that was active from 1949 to 1983. They even recorded a 45-rpm record as a fund-raiser in the 1960s that sold several thousand copies. Perhaps the greatest competitive achievement for the corps came at the June 30, 1959 Lions International parade, where the Monroe Girls took first-place over the Garfield Cadets and Madison Scouts. This was quite an impressive feat for a group that never participated in a field competition.Crossmen solidarityThe Crossmen (right, 1976, Jane Boulen) were in Atlanta, GA, on August 3, 1976, to appear in exhibition for the DCI show at Georgia Tech Stadium. The corps was to have competed originally, but the previous day they were found to have one overage member and were disqualified from DCI competitions for the remainder of the summer. The corps members walked hand-in-hand five blocks to the stadium and performed an emotional exhibition. The final note of the show that night was held for 39 counts, instead of the usual 17!What if they gave a drum corps show and no corps showed up?During the year 1962, the southern region of California didn’t have many contests, except for the American Legion State. There was to have been one additional contest, but no corps were interested in showing up for it. The reasons for such apathy were varied, but the most amusing one was that one director said he didn’t want his musical arrangements stolen by the other corps.Birds of a featherThe drum major for the 1962 Maria High School corps from Stevens Point, WI, was named Susan Chick.Sign of the timesThe check-in area for the 1963 VFW Nationals in Seattle, WA, had a sign with stick-on letters that someone got at when nobody was looking. The sign read, “CARVALIERS BUM & GLUED CORPSE.” The sign stayed posted the entire day. n n nThe CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs with performances from the 2017 DCI World Championship in Indianapolis are currently in production, with an expected release date in time for the holiday season. With anticipated availability at the end of November within the U.S., a four-disc CD set will feature the performances of the top 25 drum corps as they performed at Lucas Oil Stadiumy. Video volumes including a two-disc DVD set or two-disc high definition Blu-ray set with performances of the top-12 finalist corps will follow in mid-December.Individual products and money-saving bundles (Blu-ray + CD sets or DVD + CD sets) will be available to order on-line at www.store.dci.org toward the end of November.Producing audio and video volumes is an involved process that requires DCI to license the rights to hundreds of musical titles on an annual basis. It’s also a process that sometimes requires DCI to make edits to performances before they are released on CD, DVD and Blu-ray disc.“We take great care to ensure that all of the titles performed by our corps are appropriately licensed, with respect to the intellectual property rights of the licensors,” DCI Executive Director Dan Acheson said. “Because we are unable to obtain appropriate approvals on the part of several of our member ensembles for specific performance segments, it is necessary for us to edit performances in order to ensure they are included on this year’s compact disc and video product offerings.“Our expert production team is using their enormous depth of experience to meticulously maintain the quality and integrity of every one of the remarkable performances, while ensuring our total and complete compliance with copyright law. The result will once again be a stunning series of audio/video products, masterfully capturing all of the emotion of the 2017 DCI World Championships for posterity and for enjoyment for years to come.”In addition to CD and Blu-ray/DVD sets, Drum Corps International is also working to make performances available as digital downloads. Audio files of the top-25 drum corps will be available for purchase in the coming weeks via MarchingMusicDownloads.com, iTunes and Amazon.DCI is working to secure licensing for World Class groups outside the top-12 finishing corps, with the goal of making those digital video files available on MarchingMusicDownloads.com if and when approvals are secured.Stay up to date in the coming weeks with the latest audio/video releases, holiday sales and more with Drum Corps International's e-mail alerts from www.store.DCI.org. n n n2017 DCI World Championship audio/video currently in productionfrom the Drum Corps International Web siteBlue Devils percussion featured at annual PASIC convention in Indianapolisby Michael Boo from the Drum Corps International Web siteThe battery percussion section of the 2017 DCI World Champion Blue Devils reunited to present an educational clinic as part of the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC). The clinic, attended by well over 1,000 attendees was held at the Indiana Convention Center on Saturday, November 11.PASIC is the largest percussion convention in the world, featuring more than 120 concerts, educational clinics, master classes and other sessions about anything and everything percussion. In addition, well over 100 exhibitors were on-hand to show off the latest in percussion instruments, music and various services.Having not rehearsed as a group since the end of DCI in August, members arrived in Indianapolis on November 9 to preparen. In all, the 2017 group was missing just two snare drummers and one tenor drummer due to school conflicts. One bass drummer even flew all the way from his home in Italy to perform.“The drum line showed up and we had one rehearsal for two hours,” Blue Devils Director of Percussion Scott Johnson said. “To my surprise, we sounded very good and so I gave them the rest of the night off.”Section leader Sean Clark, who completed his last year of eligibility and aged out this summer after six years with the organization, said one of the biggest challenges getting the group back in synch after three months off was remembering the body movements and other visual moves integral to the group's drumming.Those were one of a number of focuses presented in the corps’ “lot-style” performance at PASIC. Johnson explained lot style as having the drummers perform the essence of their visual movements in the parking lot, incorporating drill steps and movement into an extremely compressed space in order to make the warm-up as similar to a performance as possible.In the approximately hour-long clinic, Johnson talked about the Blue Devils’ warm-ups and what high school programs can be doing to train the hands and the brains of their young members so that every rehearsal and performance run-through is better than the previous one. He also explained the Blue Devils’ “design by discovery” approach and how cross-section collaboration during the summer allows the percussion parts and overall production to evolve during the DCI tour.Johnson also demonstrated how the Blue Devils drum line works in challenging parts of their drum book into their warm-ups in order to have more opportunities to work on those segments. If a particular pattern is presenting difficulties, it will turn up in a warm-up and the members will have the opportunity to have their hands and brains acclimate to the pattern prior to running through the entire show.A particularly fun exercise for attendees was when Johnson had audience members answer him with their hands during a clapping exercise. Amazingly, the difficult patterns were easy for the convention hall full of percussionists. What was the biggest challenge was the easiest patterns that incorporated up to three counts of rests. In their excitement to respond, many audience members continually jumped the gun on clapping instead of waiting an additional couple of counts. This further emphasized Johnson's comments about the importance of warming up the brain.The Blue Devils join a growing list of drum corps that have performed at PASIC in recent years including The Cavaliers in 2013, Santa Clara Vanguard in 2015 and Carolina Crown in 2016.Johnson mentioned that many of the members had never experienced PASIC before and he was thrilled to have them witness it for the first time. “It's always great to get the crew back together,” he said. n n nNext >