2019 World Drum Corps Hall Of Fame Inductees
The World Drum Corps Hall of Fame will induct seven new regular members during the 2019 banquet and induction ceremony to take place in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on Friday August 30.
The Hall of Fame was founded in 1976 by the late Vince Bruni who served as director of two national championship corps in two different eras: the Crusaders and the Empire Statesmen, both of Rochester.
The regular Hall of Fame inductees are: James Elvord, brass; Shirley Stratton Dorritie, visual; John Meehan, brass; Gene Monterastelli, administrative; Jay Morlot, administrative; George Oliviero, visual; Dave Vose, percussion.
The new members and their areas of specialization are:
Administrative: Jay Morlot of Norwalk, Connecticut
While under the direction of Jay Morlot, Harrison Bushwackers won six Drum Corps Associates (DCA) world championships. He served as director/president of Bushwackers from 1987 to 2011 and since 2015 has continued to serve as co-executive director and board member.
For most of those years, he also performed in the percussion section, beginning in 1982. He is widely admired for his vision and desire to see DCA and drum and bugle corps in general move forward. Among other propositions involving DCA, he proposed the use of B flat instruments.
His drum corps activities began when he marched in the percussion section of Hawthorne Muchachos in 1976 and 1977. From 1979 to 1981 he was a member of the percussion section of Fantasia III drum and bugle corps from Little Falls, New Jersey, formed by the merger of Impeerial Knights, Dynamic Royalairs and Valley Grenadiers.
He was named a member of the New Jersey Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 2015.
Administrative: Gene Monterastelli of Casper, Wyoming
Since 2002, Gene Monterastelli has been offering his extensive visual instruction and management skills, at no cost to any of the corps he works with for two or three years. During this period, he has been a management consultant with Santa Clara Vanguard, Bluecoats, Pacific Crest, Mandarin and Oregon Crusaders. His earlier administrative duties included serving as Casper Troopers assistant director and visual caption head from 1966 to 1975. He was Phantom Regiment management consultant and visual staff member from 2002 to 2004.
His extensive involvement with Drum Corps International (DCI) includes serving on the three person DCI Hall of Fame screening committee for more than 10 years, serving as the DCI rules committee chair, initiating an annual DCI drum major seminar and education program. He also initiated the Jim Jones Leadership Award, presented to drum majors in a competition that includes conducting skills, an evaluated questionnaire and community involvement outside drum corps activities.
He was visual judge with the Central States Judging Association for more than 45 years up to 2012 and visual judge and caption head with DCI from 1976 to 2001.
Over a 50-year span, he served as visual designer and instructor for Ottawa Crusaders, visual instructor with Casper Troopers, and visual staff member with Phantom Regiment, Santa Clara Vanguard, Bluecoats, Pacific Crest and Boston Crusaders. His drum corps activity began in 1958, when he played baritone bugle for four years with Marquette Crusaders of Ottawa, Illinois.
He was inducted into the DCI Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Central States Judging Association Hall of Fame in 2000.
Brass: James Elvord of Chicago, Illinois
James Elvord taught some of the very best horn lines in the drum corps activity, while providing insights on ways to improve brass judging that helped move the adjudication model away from counting errors (ticks) to an evaluative system. He pioneered and developed the system of adjudication used in SoundSport competitions during DCI national championship events.
While he was brass caption head and program coordinator, Madison Scouts won the DCI world championship in 1975, and won the high brass caption award three years in a row in 1973, 1974 and 1975. Madison Scouts were also US Open champions in 1970. Since 1974, he has been a brass consultant with a dozen well known corps in the United States, Canada and Japan.
He was named a member of the DCI Hall of Fame in 1997. Many people he mentored are also members of the DCI Hall of Fame, including Dan Acheson, DCI executive director and Scott Stewart, former Madison Scouts director. Both are also World Drum Corps Hall of Fame members.
He has served on the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) national judging panel; been DCI brass adjudicator since 1982; served as music adjudicator with Central States Judging Association and Bands of America.
While serving as brass caption head or consultant from 1968 to 1980, he worked with Madison Junior Scouts and Explorer Scouts, Capitolaires All Ladies, Chicago Cavaliers, 27th Lancers, Santa Clara Vanguard, Colt 45s and Erie Thunderbirds. His drum corps activity began when he played French horn with Madison Junior Scouts in 1962 and 1963, then French horn and baritone with Madison Explorer Scouts until 1970.
Brass: John Meehan of Martinez, California
John Meehan’s brass performance, instructing and arranging skills have played a major role in keeping Concord Blue Devils at the peak of drum corps activity. He has won 13 DCI world championship titles, including one performing as solo soprano in 1986 and 12 more as instructor. Blue Devil horn lines have won 14 DCI Jim Ott High Brass Awards with his participation: twice as performer and 12 times as instructor. Blue Devils were World Music Contest champions in 2005.
He is considered the pre-eminent music arranger in marching arts activity, composing and designing for all levels and age groups including drum and bugle corps, marching bands, professional groups, Winter Guard International (WGI) groups. Groups around the world have performed his compositions, resulting in personal acclaim and praise directed at drum corps activity. His composing and arranging high school band clients have won many state marching band titles and Bands of America (BOA) regional titles, ldthen moved on to the finals at Bands of America Grant National Championships.
He is the lead designer for the System Blue and King marching brass instrument series. He is involved with development and production for the Sample Logic and System Blue sound libraries.
While serving as Blue Devils brass caption head and arranger, he has also been brass arranger for Kidsgrove Scouts of England, Pacific Crest, Yokohama Scouts of Japan, Velvet Knights, Skyriders and Santa Clara Vanguard. In 1993, he was trial music judge with Drum Corps Midwest.
All his performing years were in the Blue Devils organization, beginning with the C corps in 1980, moving to the B corps in 1983, then up to the A corps from 1986 to 1989.
Percussion: Dave Vose of Cape Neddick, Maine
Dave Vose has consistently pushed his percussion sections to new heights of achievement during a drum corps career that began in 1962 playing both horn and drum with the Lawrence Chieftains. Since then he has set new standards year after year, starting with his term as head of percussion and arranger with North Star, formed by the amalgamation of corps from Beverly, Danvers, Melrose, Revere and Wilmington. Just two years after forming, North Star took top spot in percussion while winning the American International Open in 1977. The following year, North Star presented the first percussion pit on the sidelines and was the first corps to march with quad drums in the DCI finals. In 1979, North Star had the top percussion score in the World Open, then placed second in percussion in the DCI finals.
His Chrome Wall percussion feature in 1978 and 1979 featured drums along with dancers, vocalists, horns and other innovative features.
He was percussion arranger for DCA champion Reading Buccaneers in 1980. In 1983, his Boston Alliance percussion section defeated every drumline in the country except for Blue Devils and Santa Clara Vanguard.
In addition to working with the Buccaneers, he has served either as consultant, head of percussion and arranger, percussion instructor or writer with Suncoast Sound, Cadets of Bergen County, Boston Alliance, Boston Crusaders and Rhode Island Matadors.
He has judged all areas of percussion for Eastern Massachusetts Judges, DCA, Youth Education in the Arts (YEA) and Massachusetts Interscholastic Judges Association.
In earlier years, he played snare drum with Tenney Cadets of Methuen, Maine. Since the early 1990s, he has drummed with Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights, Mighty St. Joe’s and St. Kevin’s Emerald Knights.
Dave Vose is currently a Berklee College of Music professor and the author of Music in Motion, a text used for teaching marching methods at Berklee. He is an international artist/clinician with Zildjian Cymbals and Yamaha Corporation of America.
He was inducted into the Massachusetts Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 2002, after receiving that group’s Thomas J. Long high achievement award in 2000.
Visual: Shirley Stratton Dorritie of Knightsen, California
As one of the Concord Blue Devils first staff members, Shirley Stratton Dorritie led the way in the transition of traditional color guards from military to modern, making use of multiple pieces of equipment and pioneering the use of color, costumes and various props. During her time as color guard instructor and choreographer from 1971 to 1984, Blue Devils won DCI world championships four times and took the best color guard award in 1984.
Her dedication, passion for the activity, creativity and constant innovation opened the modern era of visual arts programming and design by emphasizing an artistic approach that changed the look and role of drum corps guards, making them spectacular visual components of shows. Throughout a drum corps career that spans more than 40 years as performer, instructor, visual designer, innovator and manager she has made a huge impact on every aspect of drum corps activity and impacted the lives of many students, staff members and adjudicators.
She holds a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology with a certificate in Sport Psychology, specializing in training performers of all types for optimal achievement. She is the author of four levels of the WGI Certify online judge training courses; e-Adjudicate Academy’s Judging 101: The Basics for Marching Band and the chapter titled Why The Guns? Color Guard from Military to Modern in Drum Corps World’s History of Drum Corps volume II.
She became a DCI Hall of Fame member in 2009 and received the Winter Guard Association of Southern California Order of Excellence in 2018.
Since 1983, she has been visual adjudicator with DCI, WGI, BOA and Marching in Okayama. She has been general effect judge with WGI since 1994; director of judge education with Winter Guard Association of SoCal since 2011 and judge development manager with WGI since 2016.
Since 1971, she has served as instructor, caption head, consultant or coordinator for drum corps including Blue Devils, Freelancers, 27th Lancers, Santa Clara Vanguard, San Francisco Renegades, Arizona Academy. She has also served as business manager and assistant director with Blue Devils, assistant to the Santa Clara Vanguard director, and business office manager for Blue Devils.
She marched with the Blue Devils guard from 1968 to 1977, carrying a rifle then serving as color guard captain.
Visual: George Oliviero of Walnut Creek, California
Geoege Oliviero, already a member of four halls of fame, is a well-known pioneer who has written and implemented philosophies regarding general effect, visual and design analysis and scoring systems that have been in use for many years.
He is a member of the Massachusetts Drum Corps Hall of Fame, Color Guard Netherlands Hall of Fame, DCI Hall of Fame, WGI Hall of Fame. He also received the World Music Contest Award as a Friend of WMC.
He has been a visual caption judge with various organizations since 1966 when he began 30 years of service with Eastern Mass. Judges. He has also served with the New England Band Association, DCI and WGI as visual caption head. He has been a visual judge with the Western Bands Association since 1998.
Through the 1960s and early 1970s, he served as visual instructor with several nationally-known northeastern groups: St. Kevin’s Emerald Knights, St. Anthony’s Band, IC Reveries and 27th Lancers. He has also served as designer and visual instructor with Boston Crusaders and Boston College Band.
His activity began in 1958 as a horn player with Everett Statesmen from 1958 to 1960. He then spent two years each in the horn lines of Cambridge Caballeros and St. Kevin’s Emerald Knights.
The World Drum Corps Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization founded in 1976 by the late Vince Bruni, who served as director of national championship corps in two different eras: the Rochester Crusaders and the Empire Statesmen of Rochester.
The Hall of Fame honors individuals who have contributed significantly over many years to the development and continuing excellence of drum and bugle corps activity. The organization also seeks to preserve the history of the drum and bugle corps movement in North America by selecting a noteworthy junior and all age (senior) corps of each decade since the 1940s.
For more information about the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame visit the web site at http://www.worlddrumcorpshof.org
