Scout House Back At DCA Alumni Spectacular For The 12th Time
Scout House Band, of Cambridge, Ontario, will be returning to Rochester, New York on Labor Day weekend to perform in the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) Alumni Spectacular field show for the 12th time since its debut performance in 2002 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The alumni exhibition, one of the highlights of the 50th anniversary DCA championship tournament weekend, will take place in Sahlen’s Stadium (originally Rhino Stadium) near downtown Rochester on Sunday, August 31 beginning at 10 am. The Alumni Spectacular includes a dozen of the most popular drum and bugle corps from across the continent.
The groups and their performing times are:
-10 am: Kingsmen Alumni, of Hamburg, New York
-10:20 am: Optimists Alumni, of Toronto, Ontario
-10:40 am: Steel City Ambassadors Alumni, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
-11 am: Reilly Raiders Alumni, of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania
-11:20 am: Crusaders Senior Corps of Boston, Massachusetts
-11:40 am: New York Skyliners Alumni of New York, New York
-12:00 noon: Scout House Band, of Cambridge, Ontario
-12:20 pm: Park City Pride, of Bridgeport, Connecticut
-12:40 pm: Bridgemen Alumni, of Bayonne, New Jersey
-1:00 pm: Caballeros Alumni, of Hawthorne, New Jersey
Scout House will present its 2014 field show repertoire, including Waterloo Fanfare; a percussion feature leading into Miserlou, performed originally in the 1920s as a desert love song and transformed into a modern rock classic by the Beach Boys and guitar legend Dick Dale; Waltzing Matilda, the Band’s signature song since the mid 1950s, presented this year in military style with a formal introduction by the percussion section to establish the mood; Land of Make Believe, one of Rochester composer and performer Chuck Mangione’s most popular hits; Johnny One Note, the novelty number made popular by Judy Garland; Through The Eyes of Love, the emotional love ballad from the movie Ice Castles.
The Alumni Spectacular is usually the final field show of the season for Scout House, but this year the schedule extends into early October. Scout House has been seeking opportunities apart from drum and bugle exhibitions or contests in July and August to perform on the field. This fall’s extended season includes appearance in western New York high school marching band contests and community events in the Cambridge area. Scout House will perform more than 25 times this year, about the same as during the 75th anniversary year in 2013, but with fewer field shows.
The opportunities to perform on the field have been so scarce this summer that Scout House performed its field show for the first time at the Band’s Invitational Tattoo in Waterloo on August 9, a full five weeks later than the July 4 weekend first performance in 2013. The Band’s board of directors earlier this year implemented a long-range activities planning strategy and will likely be in a position to confirm the Band’s 2015 performance schedule of concerts, street parades and field shows as early as mid-autumn.
Since the first performance in 1999, Scout House has performed more than 425 concerts, street parades and field shows in Ontario, Quebec and 10 American states: Michigan, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland and Florida.
Scout House now includes about 90 marching members from more than 20 communities across southern Ontario who had previously been associated with more than 75 marching music organizations. The Scout House family also includes the Scout Houses Cadets drum and bugle corps for boys and girls from age 12 to 18 to help mark the group’s 75th anniversary since starting as a Boy Scout bugle band in 1938.
Scout House Cadets, named for the Band’s original feeder group, began activity as a drum line in September 2012, adding a brass section in September 2013 to become a full drum and bugle corps. No prior music experience is required to join the Cadets. Scout House welcomes new non marching members to help with various support activities.
For more information about Scout House 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/
