Empire Statesmen 2006 Contest Schedule
It won’t be a day at the beach for corps members, but Rochester’s Empire Statesmen won’t be far from the water as they work on “Catching Some Rays” during this summer’s Drum Corps Associates (DCA) contest circuit. The Statesmen will perform in towns located on all the important waterways in the northeast, including the Atlantic coast, Susquehanna River, Hudson River and the Chemung River.
The theme of this year’s field show is “Catching Some Rays,” featuring the music of Ray Charles. The field show includes Georgia On My Mind, Unchain My Heart, You Don’t’ Know Me, What’d I Say and Bye Bye Love, which was also a massive Top 40 radio hit for the Everly Brothers in 1957. Bye Bye Love had been rejected by 30 other singers before Don and Phil Everly released their version, producer under the guidance of family friend Chet Atkins.
The new Everly sound featured the high, keening harmonies of Appalachian country music, backed with robust acoustic guitars and a rock ‘n’ roll beat. Bye Bye Love was released following a decline in country music as rock ‘n’ roll took over the air waves. The Everly Brothers’ recording of rejuvenated the music business in Nashville.
The Empire Statesmen, five-time Drum Corps Associates (DCA) world champions, have previewed their new music during winter stage concerts and spring parades in the Rochester area. The 2006 field contest season begins in June, and winds up in Rochester on Labor Day weekend with the DCA world championship tournament in Paetec Park Stadium. Empire Statesmen are the host corps for the three-event in the new downtown stadium.
Empire Statesmen will meet defending DCA champion Reading Buccaneers five times during the season. Empire Statesmen finished second to the Bucs at last year’s DCA finals.
The two top corps will renew the rivalry during the first appearance on the field, for the second summer in a row, is at the Caballeros At The Beach contest on June 17 in Wildwood, NJ, the waterfront tourist resort town at the Atlantic Ocean coast, at the southern tip of New Jersey. On July 1, home town fans will get to see the Empire Statesmen in the Vince Bruni Preview of Champions, at Wegman’s Stadium at Aquinas Institute near downtown Rochester.
The third competition of the season takes place July 8 in Central Square, located near the eastern end of Lake Ontario in upstate New York. On July 22, the Empire Statesmen will glide down the Susquehanna River to Lewisburg, PA for the Cavalcade of Champions at Christy Mathewson Memorial Stradium at Bucknell University.
The following week, the corps will make its way upstream to Endicott, NY for the Sounds on the Susquehanna contest. On August 5, the Empire Statesmen will go up against arch-rival Syracuse Brigadiers in the Pageant of Drums, to be held at Alliance Bank Stadium in Syracuse. On August 12, the contest schedule flows back to the historic waterfront town of Kingston, NY on the banks of the Hudson River. On August 19, the Statesmen will compete in the Tournament of Drums in Memorial Stadium in Corning, NY on the banks of the Chemung River.
The last contest of the regular season, before the DCA tournament weekend in Rochester, is Big Sounds in Motion in Reading, PA, again featuring the Buccaneers.
In addition to the field contests, the summer season includes three local parades on the July 4 holiday weekend, an exhibition field show at a Raging Rhinos soccer game in Paetec Park Stadium on July 3 and a parade and special exhibition in Salem, OH on July 15.
The Empire Statesmen drum and bugle corps is a self-supporting independent group that represents the city of Rochester across the United States and Canada and as far abroad as Europe, the Caribbean and South America.
The Empire Statesmen are known for their high quality, entertaining performances on the contest field, concert stage and in street parades and other special events.
The Statesmen have won the DCA world championship title five times in the past 15 years: in 1991, 1994, 1997, 1998 and 2004. The corps also won the American Legion national title in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2004.
In 1998, the Statesmen became the only drum corps in history to win the triple crown: the World Show Band Championship, with the highest score ever recorded in that contest, in London, England, the DCA title and the American Legion championship. The World Drum Corps Hall of Fame chose the Empire Statesmen as the senior corps of the decade for the 1990s.
More information about the Empire Statesmen winter rehearsal and performance schedule is available by calling (585) 266-2232 or visiting the Web site at: www.statesmen.org
