Scout House Alumni, Cadets Drum Lines Performing At Concert

Preston Scout House Cadets drum line will make a classy public debut participating in the Kitchener/Waterloo Symphony’s (KWS) Drums, Drums, Drums! concert on Saturday, January 19, 2013. Scout House Alumni Band’s drum line will also be featured in the afternoon show from 2:30 to 4:30 at Kitchener’s Centre In The Square theatre.

Tickets are $11 for children and $22 regular. Information is available from the ticket centre at: telephone (519) 578-1570 or 1 (800) 265-8977 or by email at: boxoffice [at] centreinthesquare [dot] com

The Cadets held their first practice in mid-September, and performed in uniform for the first time at the Alumni Band’s last Sunday practice session before the holiday break. The young drummers played their street beat and exercises for Alumni Band members and a large audience of friends and relatives at the Preston Knights of Columbus building, the Band’s winter rehearsal facility.

At the Centre In The Round concert, the Alumni Band drum line will demonstrate exercises and perform some of the percussion section features from the field show. The percussion performance may also include Three Camps, which delighted the stadium audience when it was performed by a massed drum line last August during the Scout House Invitational Tattoo in Waterloo.

KWS organizers of Drums, Drums, Drums! intend the family concert to introduce the “wonderful world of rhythm, percussion and drums to young folks” in the community. The program, which will include a performance by the Symphony, is not only an excellent opportunity for the Scout House organization to highlight its percussion sections but will also show that the Band is still strongly associated with youth in the community. In the 1950s and ‘60s, the Scout House slogan was, “In Step With Youth.”

Scout House has permission to operate a recruiting booth for both the Cadets and Alumni Band in the theatre lobby.

KWS, founded in 1945, currently has 52 players on staff who perform a 38-week season from September to May at a number of regional venues, including the Centre In The Square and the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts in Kitchener, River Run Centre in Guelph and several churches in Cambridge and Waterloo.

When KWS was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2006, the community provided strong support for a fund raising campaign that raised $2.3 million. KWS is currently considered one of Canada’s outstanding orchestras, with a diverse concert season that attracts national and international attention for its artistry, musicianship and innovative programming. In the current season, KWS is introducing its new Bridge to Music instruction program for students ages 8 to 13. Bridge to Music provides subsidized group or private music lessons and instrument loans on standard orchestral instruments.

The Centre In The Square, designed to deliver outstanding acoustics and facilitate recording and broadcasting, is the main performance space for KWS. More than 2,000 seats all have unobstructed views of the stage, one of the largest in North America. The building includes The Studio, a multi-purpose space available for receptions, rehearsals, cabarets and private functions.

Each year, about 190,000 audience members attend a variety of events ranging from dance, symphony, international stars, children’s performers, mega-musicals, comedians, to magic acts.

The first performance by Scout House Alumni Band took place on stage in the spring of 1999, during the annual Great Alliance of Seniors (GAS) drum corps reunion, held in Mississauga that year. Since then, the Band has performed in more than 360 parades, field shows and concerts in communities across Ontario and Quebec, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, West Virginia and Maryland.

Before disbanding in 1967, Scout House performed regularly from the American Midwest to the Atlantic coast, traveling up to eight thousand miles a year while winning more than 80 international, national, provincial and regional titles. The original Scout House Band and director Wilf Blum are both members of the City of Cambridge Hall of Fame. Blum was one of the first Canadians inducted into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame.

For more information about Preston Scout House Alumni Band, contact Activities Director Nancy Weiler at telephone (519) 653-3376, email prestonscouthouseband [dot] adm [at] sympatico [dot] ca or visit the Web site at http://www.scouthouseband.com/

For information about Preston Scout House Cadets, contact Bruce Witmer, Scout House Band President, telephone (519) 756-0245, or email wwitmer [at] rogers [dot] com or Jim Pratt, Program Head, telephone (519) 823-8033, email kusankusho [at] hotmail [dot] com

To visit the Scout House Cadets Facebook page search for “Scout House Cadets.”