Bridgemen Announce Open House
On October 30th, a new era for the Bridgemen will begin. Although the Alumni Corps has taken its last steps down Broadway, a number of long time Bridgemen Vets have organized, under the direction of the board of directors to keep the tradition alive. The new group will be known as the Bridgemen Performing Arts and will offer several different outlets of music and pageantry related activities for young, as well as, the not-so-young.
The largest group will be the general brass ensemble. This group will accommodate the novice, intermediate players and those that do not have the time or finances for a full time commitment. All of the players in the organization will be included in this group. A limited amount of instruments will be available for those that don’t own one. This group will also be broken down into smaller ensembles that will play at church and civic functions throughout town. Another layer of this group will be the competitive brass ensemble that will compete in BHOF (buglers hall of fame) events, and the mini corps that will perform at the Drum Corps Associates World Championships on Labor Day weekend.
There will also be a percussion ensemble. This group will perform exhibitions at indoor color guard and percussion contests as well as competitive events throughout the northeast. They will also have a marching drum line that will be available for parades. While the marching drum line will be more traditional in their approach, the percussion ensemble will be more contemporary using a variety of instruments. The ensemble will also travel to the World Championships.
Entering their fourth year of competition, the DoubleB Independent Color Guard will once again represent the Bridgemen as a vehicle for those that have the desire to perform in a competitive group. DoubleB is the reigning Champion of the Independent A Class in USBands. This group combines dance with traditional color guard equipment (rifles, sabers and flags), to music in costumes and thematic set designs.
Not to be forgotten are the ladies of the Bridgemen Color Guard. This group had always been considered a supporting section to the horns and drums but, this year, they stepped out from behind the corps to compete at the World Championships. They captured the Gold medal this year in the visual ensemble division. This group will rehearse just once a month during the winter, three weekends in the summer and travel, once again, to Rochester for Worlds.
All of the groups will be presented at the annual Bayonne Day and you will see them throughout town at several community events. The open house will begin at noon with an informational session at the Bayonne Senior Center on West 4th Street at Story Court, followed by section rehearsals for each of the groups until 4 pm. Information packets on each of the groups will be distributed at the open house. For more information, send an email to bridgemenperformingarts [at] gmail [dot] com or call 201-595-9561.
