Marching Music

Teresa Williams

June 19, 2008 11:47 pm

— THOMASVILLE — A group of teal-clad youth musicians has stopped in Thomasville.
The Teal Sound Drum & Bugle Corps, celebrating its 10th anniversary season, is in the City of Roses for the week.
“Corps is basically the closest thing to a professional marching band there is,” Brandon Clemons, operations and tour director, said. “It is ‘marching music’s major league.’”
The corps is preparing for its national summer tour and holding fund-raising efforts, including an annual Family and Friends Send Off Premier show Saturday.
“We’ve spent the week at Thomasville High School as the corps makes its final preparations before leaving on its tour, competing against other groups like ours across the U.S.,” Director Randy Blackburn said in a press release. “We will be traveling more than 10,000 miles this summer toward the Drum Corps International (DCI) World Championships in Bloomington, Ind. The corps is considered to be one of the front-runners for the Open Class championship this year.”
The corps, based in Jacksonville, Fla., represents the state as “Florida’s Premier DCI Touring Drum & Bugle Corps.” It is made up of approximately 140 high school and college music students, ages 15-21, from the United States and Japan.
Its Web site, www.tealsound.org, calls the corps an “intense, competitive choreographed musical experience staged on a football field” which uses only brass and percussion instruments, “supported by dance and movement utilizing flags and other props.”
“I wanted something better than just marching band,” Mary Freund, 17, of Georgia, a mellophone player in her second year with the corps, said. “Everyone works together for the same goal.”
Georgian Ronnie Hill, 21, a contrabass player, said this is his “first and last year” with the corps.
“I have one more year before I start teaching,” he explained. “I wanted to share that experience with my students and encourage them to do drum corps and things like it.”
Austin Pelella, 20, a first-year snare drummer from Florida who also plans to become a teacher, said it has been a goal of his, since age 16, to be able to participate in a corps like Teal.
Teal Ewer, 17, a trumpet player from Georgia is also in his first year.
“I got into band because I either had to take band, choir or P.E. for a year,” he said. “I chose concert band. I chose to participate in corps because I just thought it would be really fun.”
Staff is comprised of both college and high school band directors and instructors in dance and the arts.
DCI holds a series of competitive musical events for eight weeks in the summer (June through August), mostly held at high schools or mid-size college stadiums.
“It is a great alternative activity for kids to participate in during the summer,” Clifford A. Lipscomb, staff coordinator, said. “The kids learn so much about how to take care of themselves (do their own laundry, clean their own trays, etc.). They learn personal responsibility, time management and how to take care of their bodies.”
Clemons said the corps teaches participants “everything you need to know about how to be an adult.”
The corps was originally funded by several Jacksonville organizations, Blackburn said, but now half of the operating budget is garnered from participant annual dues of $2,300 each and the other half is through donations and corporate sponsorships.
Lipscomb said the corps still needs to raise funds to support it.
“We were not expecting gas prices to rise as much as they have,” he said. “We’re having a car wash, a performance in front of Wal-Mart and our show/spaghetti dinner Saturday to help us.”
While the same show is used throughout the tour, “Voices of the Seasons” by Rajaton, an a cappella group from Finland, corps performances evolve nightly.
Participants described the show as “powerful,” “exciting” and “upbeat.”
“We make constant improvements on it,” Freund said. “I like knowing, at the end of the day, I got just a little bit better.”
They asked people attend the show Saturday and support the music.
“It is the best show on the field right now,” Hill said. “I hope we really inspire somebody with it.”
They also encouraged other young musicians to consider corps, stating it “helps you find your personality” and “makes you stronger, mentally and physically.”
“It’s been a lot of hard work, but it may be the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” Pelella said. “I even feel like that at the end of a rehearsal.”
Freund said positive thinking and going for it is important.
“You can’t say, ‘I don’t think I’m good enough,’” she said. “You’ve just got to try it.”