Empire Statesmen Second In Bridgeport

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Rochester Empire Statesmen breezed into second place behind Connecticut Hurricanes in Fanfare 2009 in Bridgeport, Connecticut on August 29, with top scores in six of the 14 score sheet captions: field brass, ensemble brass, brass total, music composite score, music effect and effect total.

The Hurricanes scored 93.563 to take top spot in the contest. Empire Statesmen were close behind with 92.900. Syracuse Brigadiers were third with 88.150, narrowly ahead of fourth place Harrison, New Jersey Bushwackers, who scored 88.013.

Empire Statesmen wound up their summer schedule of eight contests with winning three contests in which they swept all captions, three second place finishes, one third place finish and one fifth place finish.

Fanfare 2009 was the final contest in the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) regular season schedule. All DCA member corps will now focus on the 2009 world championship tournament to take place in Rochester on Labor Day weekend, featuring three days of individual, small group, ensemble, mini-corps and full field corps events and the induction of seven new members into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame.

Weekend events begin Friday, September 4 when 150 entrants will compete in Individual and Ensemble contests beginning at 5:30 pm in the downtown Radisson Hotel and the adjacent closed downtown section of Main Street. Awards will be presented outside on the Main Street bandshell at 8 pm. Beginning at 8:30 pm, 13 mini-corps will compete in the Riverside Convention Center, with a winner declared sometime around midnight. All Friday evening events are free and members of the public are welcome to attend.

The induction of new World Drum Corps Hall of Fame members will take place at a luncheon meeting in the Rochester Plaza Hotel, across the river from the Radisson. Members of the public are welcome to attend the social hour beginning at 11 am. Tickets are required for the luncheon.

Events then move to the field at Rhinos Stadium on Oak Street Saturday afternoon, with 11 Class A corps and 13 Open Class corps competing in a preliminary contest to determine who moves on the finals.

On Sunday morning, nine popular alumni corps from Canada and the United States will present their shows on the field at Rhinos Stadium, beginning at 10 am. Participating corps are: Mighty St. Joe’s of Leroy New York; Les Diplomats of Quebec City, Quebec; New York Skyliners Alumni; Preston Scout House Alumni Band of Cambridge, Ontario; Crusaders Seniors of Boston; Optimists Alumni of Toronto; Bridgemen Alumni of Bayonne, New Jersey; Park City Pride of Bridgeport, Connecticut and Hawthorne, New Jersey, Caballeros Alumni. The final competition to determine the 2009 DCA Class A and Open Class champions begins at 5:30 pm.

Empire Statesmen have been serving as the local host for the weekend events since 2006.

The Empire Statesmen are five-time DCA world champions and have also won four American Legion national titles and the triple crown: the DCA and American Legion titles and the World Show Band championship in London, England in 1998. 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 World Drum Corps Hall of Fame chose the Empire Statesmen as the senior (all age) corps of the decade for the 1990s.

Formed in 1983, the Statesmen won the International Corps Associates (ICA) championship before joining the ranks of Drum Corps Associates (DCA) in 1986. ICA was founded by the late Vince Bruni of Rochester, who also founded the Empire Statesmen and the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame, to provide performance and competition opportunities for small drum and bugle corps.

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

For more information about the Empire Statesmen organization, visit the website at: www.statesmen.org

Posted by on Monday, August 31st, 2009. Filed under DCA News.