New Staff For Empire Statesmen Color Guard

| |

Peter Garrow is the Rochester Empire Statesmen’s new color guard caption head for the 2007 season. He previously spent many years with the Rochester Patriots junior drum and bugle corps and the Patriots winter guard unit.

He was the guard caption head when Patriots won both Drum Corps International (DCI) and Winter Guard International (WGI) world championships. He was with the Patriots winter guard until it became inactive a few years ago. He has written drill for several marching bands and winter guards and most recently was the guard designer for Magic of Orlando.

He will begin to work with Empire Statesmen’s guard later in April, after the 30th anniversary WGI color guard world championships take place in Dayton, Ohio from April 12 to 14.

The Empire Statesmen’s 2007 field show is a tribute to the music of the late Maynard Ferguson, one of the last great trumpet players from the Big Band era in North America. Selections include Maria, the familiar love ballad from West Side Story; Palliacci, a lament for the opera world’s lovelorn clown; Birdland, a standard from the Big Band era, and New York, New York.

The Empire Statesmen instruction staff creating the Ferguson tribute includes show coordinator David Bruni and brass arranger Jerry Kelsey, both members of the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame, percussion arranger Colin McNutt and visual designer Ron Abate, an associate member of the Hall of Fame. Chris Thornton and David Bowen are in charge of the color guard.

The brass staff technicians are Jerry Kelsey, Joe Pero, Jamie Gibbs, David Orser, Jamie Orser and Jim Wise. Hall of Fame member Ritchie Price and Jeff Gibbens are brass consultants.

The percussion staff includes coordinator Ted Mascari, battery caption head Mike Sharpe, pit instructors Richard Burrows and Rob Sanderl, technicians Patsy Vankirk and David Edwards and consultant J.J. Pipitone

Visual staff caption head is David Bruni, working with technicians Joe Taylor, Kevin Walters and Mike Hillman.

Guard staff includes caption head Peter Garrow, David Bowen and Bethaney Hauswirth and technician Joe Nolan.

The Statesmen, five time Drum Corps Associates (DCA) world champions, also operate the Empire Cadets youth marching band for Rochester area boys and girls as a community outreach program. A major capital fund-raising campaign now underway aims to provide the long-term financial support required to maintain various programs of both the Statesmen and the Empire Cadets.

The Statesmen will be sponsoring the DCA world championship tournament on Labor Day weekend for the second year in a row. The three-day schedule includes individual and ensemble contests in several downtown locations, the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame induction ceremony, an alumni corps field show, and preliminaries and finals for competing corps to determine the 2007 DCA champions. The field events will all be held in PAETEC Park Stadium near downtown Rochester.

The Empire Statesmen all-age 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.

To contribute to the Empire Statesmen’s capital campaign, or to obtain information about performances, membership or volunteer opportunities, call (585) 266-2232 or visit the Empire Statesmen Web site at: www.statesmen.org

Posted by on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007. Filed under DCA News.