Hammond To Head Pioneer’s 2011 Brass Caption

The Pioneer are honored to announce Kris Hammond will join the corps brass staff as head of that caption.

Kris Hammond started his career in the pageantry arts as a member of the 1998 and 1999 Tarheel Sun Drum and Bugle Corps (Cary, NC). Immediately after graduating high school and the Fine Arts Center magnet school (Greenville, SC) in 2001, he won an audition and was accepted into the U.S. Navy?s music program as a trumpet instrumentalist. Aftercompleting boot camp, Kris was then sent to the Navy?s School of Music in Little Creek, VA and qualified for anaccelerated graduation.With orders to the 7th Fleet Band, Kris was flown to Yokosuka, Japan where he spent three years as lead trumpet in the big band Far East Edition, principal trumpet of the brass quintet Shonan Brass, and a member of the horn section in the rock band, Orient Express. In such ensembles, he toured 14+ countries (including Vietnam, China, and Russia) in South East Asia on 7th Fleet’s flagship “USS Blue-Ridge.” While in Japan, he also performed joint concerts with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra as co-principal trumpet. Playing standard marches and larger orchestral works, the TSO later released the CD entitled American Sounds of Yokosuka in 2003.

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