Empire Statesmen Meeting DCA’s Top Corps Over Summer

Rochester’s Empire Statesmen will get plenty of opportunity to size up the opposition this summer, with contests across the Northeast including six of last year’s other top 10 open class finalists at the Drum Corps Associates world championship tournament. Statesmen finished third in the 2008 DCA finals.

The Statesmen will compete in eight regular season contests, starting with their own hometown Vince Bruni Preview of Champions on July 4 at St. John Fisher College. Their season winds up at home with the DCA championships on September 5 and 6 in downtown Rhinos Stadium (formerly Paetec Park Stadium).

The corps they will face on the field in contests in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Connecticut over next two months include: 2008 DCA champion Reading Buccaneers, Hurricanes of Seymour, Connecticut (fourth); Hawthorne Caballeros (fifth); Bushwackers of Harrison, New Jersey (sixth); Syracuse Brigadiers (seventh) and Rochester Crusaders (10th).

Contest lineups over July and August will feature several top class A corps as well, including Fusion Core of Morris County, New Jersey; Kingston, Ontario Grenadiers and White Sabers of Dansville, New York.

Statesmen’s regular season contests this year include: Mission Drums in Lawrence, Massachusetts on July 18; Buglers Holiday in Jamestown, New York on July 25; Parade of Champions in Scranton, Pennsylvania on August 1; March of Champions in Kingston, New York on August 8; Brigadiers’ Pageant of Drums in Cicero, New York on August 15; Norwich DCA Brass Fanfare in Norwich, New York on August 22; Fanfare 2009 in Bridgeport, Connecticut on August 29.

Empire Statesmen are sponsoring the DCA finals on Labor Day weekend for the fourth year in row. Events begin Friday evening, September 4, with individual and ensemble competitions and the highly popular mini-corps contest in downtown Rochester, with free admission to all events and an outdoor street party. Events on Saturday, September 5 include the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame induction ceremony during a noon luncheon and class A and open class preliminaries beginning at Rhinos Stadium at 2 pm.

Sunday events include the Alumni Spectacular field show by nine of North America’s most popular alumni corps in the morning, with the DCA class A and open class finals beginning at 5:30 pm.

Since first competing in 1983, the Empire Statesmen have won five Drum Corps Associates (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 21 consecutive years. In addition to winning five championships, the Statesmen have finished in second place six times; in third place six times and in fourth place four times.

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 corps also sponsors the Empire Cadets marching band for city and area youngsters, as a community outreach program.

For tickets to the Preview of Champions or information about any aspect of the Empire Statesmen organization, call (585) 266-2232, e-mail esmen [at] rochester [dot] rr [dot] com or visit the Empire Statesmen Web site at: www.statesmen.org