LiveWire – with Gil Silva, President of DCA

DrumCorpsPlanet.com is excited to annouce that Gil Silva, President of Drum Corps Associates, is answering your questions in this edition of our LiveWire feature – hosted by Geoff Jones. LiveWire is an interview feature with a well-known drum corps personalities and leaders – where YOU ask the questions of our guest. In the past, Livewire has featured Jeff Fiedler, Director of the Cavaliers, George Hopkins, Director of YEA!, and Dan Acheson, Executive Director of Drum Corps International.

Questions for Gil should be directed to LiveWire [at] drumcorpsplanet [dot] com and must be received by midnight, Sunday, April 9th. Geoff will collect all of the questions submitted, aggregate them, and then publish Gil’s answers in the next few weeks.

Be sure to take advantage of this chance to ask DCA’s President that interesting question you’ve been dying to know the answer to.

For those of you that may not know him or of his long-term involvement with the drum and bugle corps activity – here’s a little about Gil Silva:

Gil started his drum corps experience by joining the “Holy Rosary Caballeros” a local parish drum corps in 1957, after his neighbor and best friend talked him into joining.

Holy Rosary was a senior corps with about 30 members. Gil joined the percussion section and was introduced to the wonderful activity that he would spend most of his life enjoying. His parents also became involved in the corps as volunteers and his dad eventually became corps director. Gil spent the first four years as a tenor drummer and then switched to bass baritone bugle at his father’s request.

In 1969, the members of the corps decided to join forces with the Skylarks and became the RI Matadors. This is when Gil first met Michael “Red” Corso and shared his vision of taking the Matadors to national prominence and DCA. From 1969 to 1987, Gil was with the Matadors. During this time, he became section leader, marching instructor, Assistant Director, then Business Manager for the corps. Gil also became, with the help of some wonderful instructors, a drill designer and instructor, teaching a number of corps and High School bands in the New England area.

Gil’s DCA experience started in 1972, when the Matadors became a member. He remembers his first meeting, sitting in the same room with drum corps legends like Jim Costello, George Bull, Lefty Mayer, Vince Bruni, Joe Genero, Pepe Notaro . In 1988 after the Matadors disbanded, Mickey Petrone asked Gil to become Chief Judge in DCA, which he gratefully accepted. In 1991, Gil accepted the position of Vice-President of DCA, a position he held for twelve years, until the sudden death of Mickey, which led to Gil becoming the President of DCA. Gil hopes to carry on the dream of Lefty, Mickey, Cos, Red and Vince, as DCA enters a new and exciting time of “All Age Corps” growing all over the country. DCA will take on this challenge of growth with caution and dedication to the activity we cherish.

Publisher’s Note:
We’re honored to have DCA President Gil Silva as our guest for this edition of LiveWire. Our thanks to Gil and Fred Windish for taking the time to make this possible. Please submit your questions to LiveWire [at] drumcorpsplanet [dot] com and we’ll add them to the list for Gil to review and answer. Please note that all questions will be reviewed by our DCP editors and aggregated into similar topics and themes, to avoid duplication. Questions deemed inappropriate will not be forwarded to our guest. DCP reserves the right to edit submissions for spelling, grammar, and content. All submissions may not be answered or featured in our LiveWire publication.