Empire Statesmen Tops In All Captions In Norwich, NY

For the third time this season Rochester’s Empire Statesmen recorded top scores in all 14 captions, to win the DCA Brass Fanfare contest in Norwich, New York on August 22 with a total score of 92.638. The Statesmen also topped every caption in winning Buglers Holiday in Jamestown, New York on July 25 and the Vince Bruni Preview of Champions in Rochester on July 4. Norwich is located about 60 miles southeast of Syracuse.

Syracuse Brigadiers finished second in Norwich, with a score of 88.150. The Grenadiers of Kingston, Ontario continued their steady climb up the score sheets during their 50th anniversary season, finishing third with 79.825. Rochester Crusaders were fourth, with 75.950. The White Sabers, of Dansville, New York made another big leap in scores from their previous contest, finishing fifth with 73.813. Excelsior, representing the greater capital district of New York and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was sixth, with 60.438.

Empire Statesmen’s final contest of the regular season will take place in Bridgeport, Connecticut on August 29. Fanfare 2009 will features Empire Statesmen, Connecticut Hurricanes, Bushwackers and Brigadiers.

All DCA member corps will compete in Rochester on Labor Day weekend, to determine the 2009 champions in Class A and the Open Class. The weekend tournament will include an afternoon and evening preliminary contest on Saturday, September 5, with the top corps moving on to the finals on Sunday evening. Empire Statesmen are serving as the local host for the weekend events, for the fourth year in a row.

Admission is free for all Friday evening events, including individual and small ensemble competitions and the highly popular mini-corps contest in downtown Rochester’s Convention Center, on the bank of the Genesee River. Individual contests will be held in four categories of brass and seven categories of percussion instruments; five visual categories, including groups of up to 30; five duet categories including visual and keyboard performances; brass trios; brass and percussion quartets and five categories of ensembles. The mini-corps contest, the final event of the evening, will likely conclude at midnight or later.

Other weekend events include the induction of seven new members of the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame, at a Saturday luncheon at the downtown Rochester Plaza Hotel. Members of the public are welcome to attend the social hour beginning at 11 am on the mezzanine level, to chat with Hall of Fame members and review an extensive collection of drum and bugle corps memorabilia.

Another weekend highlight will be the Sunday morning DCA Alumni Spectacular field show and concert, featuring nine well-known corps from Canada and the United States. All the field events will be held at Rhinos Stadium (formerly known as Paetec Park Stadium).

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