So I wanted to write a bit of an unconventional post. This does not have to do with politics or war, but more so the growing population of people outside of the United States who are auditioning to be in drum corps.
What is drum corps? Drum corps is an up to 150 member marching band consisting of only color guard, percussion, and brass. Some drum corps, like the Madison Scouts from Madison, Wisconsin, have been around for over 75 years while others are just starting to emerge. Drum corps is more than just marching band: it is an extremely rigorous audition process to spend three months of your life doing what you love and perform an 11-13 minute show for crowds of thousands of people across the country. DCI (Drum Corps International), regarded as marching music's major league, is played at college and professional stadiums across the country from mid-June through early August, ending with world championships at Lucas Oil Stadium located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The audition process starts in November/ December and goes until April when the final cuts are made. The catch? You can only do drum corps until you are 21. After that, you age out and cannot march. Once one makes a corps, they participate in what's called pre-tour. This is 12-14 hours of rehearsal a day for 3-4 weeks. After that, from June-August, it's traveling on a coach bus across the country, sleeping on gym floors, and all day rehearsals with shows at night happening 3-5 times a week. It is, essentially, band on steroids. And, it's really cool to see and a really prestigious organization to be in.
Why I am bringing this up is recently, people outside of the US are auditioning to spend three months of their life at a pricey cost (drum corps is anywhere between $2300-$3500 to march) just to do what they love every day for that duration. For instance, the world class Cavaliers drum and bugle corps is a corps based in Rosemont, Illinois and two weekends ago was one of their callback camps. Not only were men from 32 different states traveling to Rosemont to try and get a contract with this 150 person ensemble, men from Thailand, Canada, Japan, and Belgium also travelled across seas to try and score a spot. We can also add people from those countries and Great Britain, South Africa, Italy, South America, and others traveling to Texas, Boston, California, South Carolina, or whatever corps in the United States captured their heart to try and make their dreams come true.
Why this is so significant is that we are seeing a growth in music education globally. I'm sure I am the only one who knows and cares about drum corps in this class, but it is pretty insane that an activity in America is at such a caliber that people from other countries are coming here to be part of the experience that only lasts about three months and that only musicians know about. Drum corps does exist in Europe and Japan, but it is nowhere near as developed or popular as it is here in the states. This means that music education matters and is a force to be reckoned with. I mean, I'm far from a music ed major (psychology with a minor in global studies) and I'm definitely not the next Mozart or anything. I just decided nine years ago to pick up a pair of drumsticks and have been doing my thing ever since and it has changed my life.
If there is one thing I would love to see more globalized, it is drum corps and music education in general. Again, people from across the world are coming to the states to try and secure a spot in a 150 member ensemble when around roughly 10,000 musicians try to audition for a spot per season (there are only 16 world class corps with up to 150 in the top 12 corps and 24 open class corps anywhere from 30-150 people). This just comes to show that music can change lives and it's not just "band" or the stereotypical image of marching band. It's exciting that this program is starting to grow even more, and I really hope we can get out of a world where music and the marching arts don't matter.
Julianna Grandinetti
http://cavaliers.org/blog/cavaliers-cast-membership-push-toward-2015-season
http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=51dae194-9d64-4940-befa-cab4e1891bc2
http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=f79a77ee-bc46-4901-b922-122719da9ae2
http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=5f53925c-3028-4084-b159-6de26d05658f
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMlvJJphzb4
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