Empire Statesmen On The Road To Mexico
Rochester’s Empire Statesmen drum and bugle corps is participating in a number of community-based festivals and parades over the next few weeks, winding up with a road trip that will take them north to Mexico. Yes, north!
The Statesmen will perform on June 9 in Mexico, a small town of about 5,000 on the shore of Lake Ontario, northeast of Rochester. The area includes the small towns of Texas and New Haven. The Statesmen will take advantage of Mexico’s hospitality to get in plenty of field show practice time during the two-day visit.
Participation in area community events has made this the busiest spring schedule ever for the Empire Statesmen.
Before driving to Mexico, the Statesmen will march in Memorial Day parades in neighboring communities Irondequoit on May 27 and Pittsford on May 28. On June 2 and 3, the Statesmen will make their traditional appearance in Geneva, while the corps is based at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for a two-day rehearsal camp weekend.
The Empire Statesmen have already performed a benefit concert in Medina, New York in late April, and marched around Highland Park during Rochester’s Lilac Festival Parade on May 12. The annual festival attracts up to 500,000 people from around the world who enjoy more than 200 varieties of lilacs and other plants in the park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York’s Central Park.
The Irondequoit Memorial Day parade along Titus Avenue from Irondequoit Plaza to Town Hall begins at 3 pm Sunday, May 27, sponsored by the members of American Legion Post 134. Currently with about 90 members, Post 134 has been sponsoring the parade since 1928.
Pittsford’s traditional patriotic parade from the village center to Pittsford Cemetery begins at 10 am Monday, May 28. Grand Marshall Colonel James D. McDonough Jr., U.S. Army (retired) will give the Memorial Day speech honoring veterans. Following the ceremony, Rayson-Miller American Legion Post 899 will host a reception.
The weekend in Geneva includes a community concert and plenty of rehearsal time over Saturday and Sunday.
Hobart and William Smith (HWS) are independent liberal arts colleges based on a two-college system. Founded as separate colleges, Hobart for men in 1822 and William Smith for women in 1908, they now operate under a coordinate college system. Students share the same campus, faculty, administration and curriculum but each college maintains its own traditions, deans, student government and athletic department. Men graduate from Hobart College. Women graduate from William Smith College. The 50th Plus reunion this year includes a Family Festival on the quad Saturday, June 2.
The Empire Statesmen will make their first appearance on the contest field in Bridgeport, Connecticut on Saturday June 30. Other corps tentatively scheduled to appear in the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) contest are Bushwackers; Reading Buccaneers, defending DCA champions Minnesota Brass, Connecticut Hurricanes and Hawthorne Caballeros.
About the Empire Statesmen
Since first competing in 1983, the Empire Statesmen have won five DCA world championships, four American Legion national titles, and the World Show Band championship while placing in the top four at DCA championships for 23 consecutive years.
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 Empire Statesmen also sponsor the Empire Cadets youth band as part of a longstanding community outreach program, which includes participation in community parades and festivals across a wide area and benefit concerts to support music programs across western New York and southern Ontario.
For more 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
