Empire Statesmen Tops In Music Effect At Mission Drums
The music of Rochester’s Empire Statesmen’s 25th anniversary season, a mix of Big Band tunes, Broadway hits and a patriotic climax, was tops in the effect caption at Mission Drums in Lawrence, Massachusetts on July 26, but some more work is still needed in execution captions to help them overtake this season’s front-running corps. Despite finishing third overall at Mission Drums, Statesmen were second in the field visual, field percussion, field brass and visual effect captions.
Overall, Statesmen scored 84.850, to finish behind first place Connecticut Hurricanes, who scored 86.513 and second place Hawthorne Caballeros, who scored 85.538. Rochester Crusaders finished fourth, with 76.450. Fusion Core was fifth, with 69.475.
The results in the Mission Drums contest were similar to the previous week’s third place finish at the Cavalcade of Champions in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Although Statesmen finished in third place overall in the Cavalcade behind Reading Buccaneers and the Caballeros, they were second in field brass, ensemble brass, visual effect and total effect. Cavalcade of Champions winners Reading Buccaneers were tops in every caption except color guard, won by the Bushwackers.
The Buccaneers, Caballeros, Statesmen and Bushwackers finished the Cavalcade in the same order as at last year’s DCA championships. There are now just four more weekends of competition before the 2008 DCA world championship tournament takes place in downtown Rochester on Labor Day weekend, but last year’s top four finalists won’t meet again on the same field until August 16 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Empire Statesmen will be one of three Drum Corps Associates (DCA) Open Class corps competing in the Pageant of Drums in Waterloo, New York on August 2. Syracuse Brigadiers are presenting the Pageant as a Class A Regional event, with competing Class A corps receiving honors for first, second and third place. Competing Class A corps are Excelsior, Carolina Gold, Fusion Core, White Sabers and Kingston Grenadiers. The other open class corps competing will be Syracuse Brigadiers and Rochester Crusaders.
The Pageant of Drums contest was originally scheduled to be held at North Syracuse High School, but has been switched to Waterloo High School stadium, 96 Start Street. The show will start at 7 pm.
Empire Statesmen are celebrating their 25th anniversary season with a field show that features an opening fanfare of Moonlight Serenade, followed by Take The A Train and Sing, Sing, Sing. The arrangement of My Way includes snippets of Broadway hits Sun and Moon, the love ballad from Miss Saigon, and With Every Breath I Take, the lover’s lament from City of Angels. Music from West Side story leads into the percussion section feature, The Rumble. The show comes to a conclusion with a patriotic medley.
Since first competing in 1983, the Empire Statesmen have won five DCA world championships, four American Legion national titles, and the triple crown: the DCA and American Legion titles and the World Show Band championship in London, England all in the same year in 1998, when the field show featured music from West Side Story. Empire Statesmen have finished in the top four during DCA championship tournaments for 20 consecutive years. The Statesmen are sponsoring the DCA championships for the third year in a row, with events in several downtown Rochester locations and at PAETEC Park.
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.
For more information about any aspect of the Empire Statesmen organization, call (585) 266-2232 or visit the Empire Statesmen Web site at: www.statesmen.org.
