2011 DRUM CORPS INTERNATIONAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Cadets capture tenth title
Cavaliers win fifth drum award
Story and photos by Lauren Vogel Weiss
T
he 2011 Drum Corps International World Championships were held
August 13 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Thanks to
the covered stadium, neither the corps nor the fans were affected by the
sudden thunderstorms that popped up around 9:00 that evening and
caused such terrible damage at the nearby Indiana State Fair, killing six
and injuring dozens.
The Cadets (Allentown, Pennsylvania) won its tenth World Championship—their first since 2005—with a score of 98.35. The corps placed
first during the preliminary, semifinal, and final competitions and also
won the Don Angelica Best Overall General Effect and Best Visual Performance awards.
“I’ve been involved with drum corps as a player or a teacher since 1988
but this is the first time my corps has won,” exclaimed Colin McNutt,
Percussion Director and Arranger for The Cadets. “It feels great! I’m so
glad we got recognition, and I’m real excited for the kids!”
The Cadets’ program, “Between Angels and Demons,” featuring music
The Cadets’ “Angel” and “Demon” drum lines battled it out as the corps won
its tenth World Championship
CORPS
1. The Cadets
2. Blue Devils
3. Cavaliers
4. Carolina Crown
5. Phantom Regiment
6. Santa Clara Vanguard
7. Bluecoats
8. Boston Crusaders
9. Blue Knights
10. Madison Scouts
11. Blue Stars
12. Spirit of Atlanta
of Frank Ticheli and Hans Zimmer, saw half the corps dressed in allcream uniforms (angels) while the other half was in all-maroon (demons).
The pit wore the traditional maroon jackets and cream pants. “One of
my favorite parts of the show,” McNutt said, “is when we had the angel
drum line on one side of the field and the demon drum line on the other
side and they played the same part, 35 [yard line] to 35. That was a lot of
fun! We did many separate rehearsals because of the staging, but then we
would put it together to work on large phrases.”
Champions for the past two years, the Blue Devils (Concord, California) received the silver medal with a Burt Bacharach-themed show, “The
Beat My Heart Skipped.” Placing second all three nights, the Blue Devils
also won the George Zingali Best Color Guard award.
The Cavaliers (Rosemont, Illinois) placed third overall to capture the
bronze medal for the program “XtraordinarY,” which included “Footprints” by Wayne Shorter and “Nature Boy” by Eden Ahbez. The Cavaliers also received the Fred Sanford Best Percussion Performance Award
for the fifth time, and first time since 2000.
“Our show allowed us to really explore the electronic palette like no
one else has done,” explained Michael McIntosh, one of two percussion
designers for the corps. “When you do a show that’s about nothing and
everything, it allows you to really take some chances. It’s all about pushing the activity in a way that hopefully will inspire other people to push
things in a way that hasn’t happened before.”
One of the audience’s favorite moments of The Cavaliers’ show was the
“upside down” tenors. “I remember how that came about,” laughed Brian
Tinkel, in his second year as the Percussion Caption Head. “The members
were messing around on a water break and the tech took a video of one
of the drummers playing some music upside down. They sent the video
to Mr. McIntosh as a joke, and he said, ‘We’re putting it in!’ That was part
of what was special about the show—that we drew on skills the members
had and were able to incorporate them into the show.”
SCOREDRUM SCORE*
(out of 100 pts.)(out of 20 pts.)
98.35
97.80
96.85
95.30
95.05
92.20
92.05
90.65
89.20
87.55
86.20
85.35
19.2 (3rd)
19.4 (2nd)
19.6 (1st)
18.6 (6th)
18.5 (7th)
19.0 (4th)
18.7 (5th)
18.4 (8th)
18.2 (9th)
16.8 (12th)
17.8 (10th)
17.0 (11th)
Drum judges: Allan Kristensen (Prelims), JJ Pipitone (Semifinals),
Jeff Prosperie (Finals)
* The drum score listed above is from Saturday night and is based on a 20
point total. That number is then divided by two and only a maximum of 10
points are added into the total possible overall score of 100 points. The “High
Drum” award is actually an average of the three nights of competition.
OCTOBER 2011 24 percussion newS
The Cavaliers won the Fred Sanford Best Percussion Performance Award
with “alternating keyboards” in the front and “upside-down tenors” in the
back
www.pas.org
While the tenors were playing upside down, the keyboards were “splitting” a part—one person playing the right hand and the other person
playing the left hand. “They also did a kind of ‘do-si-do’,” Tinkel said,
“inspired by Mark Ford’s ‘Stubernic.’ Overall, this was one of the most
enjoyable groups of young men I’ve ever worked with. They worked very
hard every day, with open ears and open hearts. I’m really proud of them.”
The final caption award, the Jim Ott Award for Best Brass Performance, went to Carolina Crown (Ft. Mill, South Carolina), who placed
fourth with its crowd-pleasing program “Rach Star” mixing classical pieces by Sergei Rachmaninoff with rock classics like “We Will Rock You” by
Brian May. And the Spirit of Atlanta (Atlanta, Georgia) returned to the
elite “Top 12” after a three-year absence with a tribute to film noir.
The Glassmen (Toledo, Ohio), who placed 12th last year, finished
in the “unlucky” 13th position. Rounding out the “Top 17” from Friday
night’s Semifinals were the Troopers (Casper, Wyoming) who finished
15th last year, the Academy from Tempe, Arizona (14th last year), the
Colts from Dubuque, Iowa (13th last year) and the Crossmen from San
Antonio, Texas (also 17th last year).
On August 9, 18 Open Class corps competed in their Divisional Finals. (The Prelims scheduled for Monday were cancelled due to severe
weather.) For the third year in a row, the Blue Devils B corps captured
the title, scoring a 95.00 to win the gold medal. They also won the percussion and general effect captions. For the second year in a row, the Oregon
Crusaders (Portland, Oregon) won the silver medal (and brass and visual
captions) with a score of 94.70. And 2008 Open Class Champions Santa
Clara Vanguard Cadets (Santa Clara, California) scored a 94.20 to win a
bronze medal.
This was also the first year for the Celebrate Indy Arts! Parade through
downtown Indianapolis on August 13. Twenty-nine drum corps marched
through the streets, along with floats representing 13 local Indianapolis
arts organizations, including PAS. The Grand Champion unit was the
Pacific Crest Drum & Bugle Corps (Diamond Bar, Calif.).
The Blue Devils’ Keelan
Aaron Spevak from the
Tobia was named Best Indi- Blue Devils received the
vidual Snare
Best Individual Timpani
award
Matthew Penland from the
Santa Clara Vanguard won
Best Individual Multi-Tenor
Amir Oosman, the drumset
player for the Blue Devils,
won the Best Individual
Multi-Percussion title
Vanguards’ Stephen Hall
played Sammut’s arrangement of “Indifference”
to win Best Individual
Keyboard
Individuals and Ensemble
For the second year in a row, the World Class Individuals & Ensemble
Competition was not held during finals week. (The Open Class division was held at the Indianapolis Convention Center on August 10 and
those results may be found on www.dci.org.) Members of World Class
corps competed at Sunset Station in downtown San Antonio, Texas on
July 24 (the day following the DCI Southwestern Championship at the
Alamodome). For the 21st year in a row, the I&E events were supported
by S.O.M.E. (Sponsors of Musical Enrichment), based in San Joaquin
County, Calif.
Three members of the Blue Devils’ drum line captured World Class Individual percussion awards: Keelan Tobia won the Best Individual Snare
award with a score of 97.0. He played an original solo entitled “Dangerous Games.” Keelan, a junior at Modesto Junior College, is majoring in
graphic design.
Aaron Spevak, a member of the Blue Devils’ front ensemble, was
named Best Individual Timpani. He scored a 98.5 (the highest percussion
score of the day) for his original timpani solo “Six,” which he dedicated to
his parents for their support during his six years in drum corps.
Amir Oosman, the drumset player in the Blue Devils’ front ensemble,
won the the title of Best Individual Multi-Percussion. He played an
original drumset solo called “All of these Sawces,” which scored a 97.5.
The other two solo categories were won by members of the Santa Clara
Vanguard drum line. Best Individual Multi-Tenor went to 21-year-old
Matthew Penland, a senior music major in percussion performance at the
University of North Texas in Denton. He played an original composition
“Deviation,” and scored a 95.0 to win. This was Matt’s sixth year marching with a DCI corps.
Stephen Hall, a member of the Vanguard’s front ensemble and a
four-year veteran of drum corps, won Best Individual Keyboard. He is
a 20-year-old junior at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois
where he is a percussion performance major. He scored a 95.5 for his
www.pas.org
percussiON nEWS 25 OCTOBER 2011
performance of “Indifference” by Joseph Colombo, arranged by Eric
Sammut.
The Blue Devils also won the Best Percussion Ensemble award with a
duet: Matt Keown played snare and Nick Arce, who won Best Individual Tenor in 2009, played tenors. Their original piece “Rebellion Against
Closed Gates” scored a 93.0.
Best Bass Drum Ensemble went to the Colts bass line: Nick Brakeman, Wade Gibson, Nik Kennett, Derek Reid, and Russell Wood. All
The duet of Matt Keown (snare) and Nick Arce (tenor) from the Blue Devils
was named the Best Percussion Ensemble
Members of the Colts Bass Drum Ensemble were (L–R) Nick Brakeman,
Wade Gibson, Nik Kennett, Derek Reid, and Russell Wood
The Santa Clara Vanguard cymbal section (L–R) Jeff Ramos, Dan Russie,
Armeen Ghafourpour, and Drew Kleinbach -- won Best Cymbal Ensemble
were rookies except Wade, who was marching his second year in drum
corps. They scored a 95.5 for their original composition “Alpha 5.”
For the fourth time in six years, the Best Cymbal Ensemble went to
the Santa Clara Vanguard. (They also won in 2006, 2007, and 2008.)
Armeen Ghafourpour (18 years old), Drew Kleinbach (20), Jeff Ramos
(21), and Dan Russie (21) performed “Third Time’s the Charm,” an
original work that received a score of 95.5.
The 2012 World Championships (August 9–11, 2012) will return to
Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. For more information on joining or
viewing drum and bugle corps, please contact DCI at www.dci.org. w
OCTOBER 2011 26 percussion newS
www.pas.org