World Drum Corps Hall Of Fame Class Of 2022 Inductees
Six new Regular members from Canada and the United States will be inducted into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame during the 2022 banquet and ceremony to be held in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in November.
The entire Hall of Fame class of 2022 includes inductees in five categories: Regular, Associate, President’s Choice, International and Distinguished Professional Achievement.
Candidates from administration, brass, percussion and visual categories to be inducted as regular members this year are: Mike DiMeo of New Hartford, New York; Jim Dugan of Milford, Connecticut; David Glyde of Walnut Creek, California; Eric Kitchenman of Lansdale, Pennsylvania; Dave MacKinnon of Kitchener, Ontario; Hugh Mahon (deceased).
Administration:
Hugh Mahon (deceased March 17, 2021) was involved in every aspect of drum and bugle corps activity for more than 60 years: performance, instruction, administration and judging. He became a member of the Drum Corps International (DCI) Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Garfield Cadets Hall of Fame in 1984. While he was director of Garfield Cadets in 1972, he was one of the four corps directors who created DCI then planned and organized the first DCI world championship tournament in Whitewater, Wisconsin. The other three are also Hall of Fame members: Dave Kampschroer (Blue Stars), Jim Jones (Troopers) and Don Warren (Cavaliers). Just two years earlier, Hugh Mahon organized and founded the United Organization of Junior Corps (UOJC), bringing together eastern drum corps and the judging community. He was a visual judge with the Central States Judging Association, the New England Judging Association and the Eastern States Judging Association from the mid 1960s to the 1980s. He was visual instructor for many top corps beginning with Paterson Lamplighters in 1964 and later Garfield Cadets, Toronto Optimists, Long Island Kingsmen, Bayonne Bridgemen, New York Skyliners and Spirit of Atlanta. Before he began instructing, he marched as drum major with Paterson Cadets, Skyliners (as co-drum major with Hall of Fame member Walter Winkleman), Garfield Cadets and Hawthorne (as co-drum major with Hall of Fame member Ralph Silverbrand).
Brass:
Mike DiMeo is highly regarded as a soloist in the drum corps community and the wider music world, having performed with such groups and the Four Tops, the Temptations, Jimmy Dorsey Band and other nationally known and local groups and serving as director of the Utica Symphony Orchestra. He is a member of the Buglers Hall of Fame and the New York State Field Band Conference Hall of Fame. His bands won many New York state champions while he served as band director at New Hartford High School. He was a widely respected music judge in the All American conference and the NYS Federation of Contest Judges, able to judge all music captions. On the drum corps contest field in the 1990s as featured soloist with Syracuse Brigadiers, he won the individual showmanship award at the 1993 Drum Corps Associates (DCA) championships, DCA championship and high brass championship as caption head in 1997and the best soloist award in 1995 and 1998. He was remarkably steady as a soloist with strength in tone style and range, never missing a note. He was assistant director and brass caption head of Utica Magnificent Yankees from 1968 to 1974. His drum corps career began in 1962, when he was soprano soloist with the Magnificent Yankees. He was drum major from 1964 to 1968 then became brass caption head. During his marching years, he won many individual contests featuring competitors from across the east coast and Canada, then again won a number of best drum major trophies.
Dave MacKinnon has produced two of Drum Corps International’s (DCI) top horn lines while serving as instructor, music director or brass caption head and supervisor during more than four decades of drum corps involvement. He was music director and brass caption head for 15 years, beginning in 1978, with Ventures all-girl corps of Kitchener, Ontario. The Ventures captured the DCI Division A championships five times in a 10-year period: 1980, 1985, 1987, 1989 and 1990, winning many music and other captions along the way. In the 17 years of their existence, the Ventures placed in the top three of their class 13 times. They are the only corps to win both the All Girl and A Class title at the same time, taking both titles in 1980. The Ventures made history again when they became the first all girl corps to place in DCI’s Top 25 in 1986. His association with Bluecoats of Canton, Ohio began in 1994. He has served as brass caption head and supervisor ever since. He is a member of the Bluecoats Hall of Fame. Bluecoats have been DCI finalists in all but one year of his service, taking the title in 2016; second place in 2014 and 2019; third in 2010, 2015 and 2018. He is particularly well regarded for helping individual horn players improve and working with experienced ensembles, taking them to the top level through his tenacious striving for perfection. He has been a judge with both major drum corps association: general effect, ensemble and field brass with DCI and general effect and ensemble brass with Drum Corps Associates (DCA). He first played soprano horn with Canadian Commanders of Burlington, Ontario in 1973. He played soprano and mellophone with Toronto Optimists in the following two years, and continued on mellophone with Seneca Optimists until 1977.
Percussion:
Jim Dugan has been remarkably successful during his involvement with the Bushwackers, founded in Harrison, New Jersey in 1981. He is a member of the Bushwackers Hall of Fame, inducted in 2010. Over a 10 year span while he was percussion/battery coordinator then co-program coordinator, the Bushwackers won the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) championship six times: 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993. They also took the DCA high percussion score an un-precedented six times in a row from 1986 to 1991. He worked closely with Hall of Fame member Robbie Robinson in 1992 and 1993 to create innovative percussion programs for Bushwackers, featuring triple stack bass drums. He played snare in Bushwackers’ championship drum lines in 1987 and1991. Earlier, he played snare with Bayonne Bridgemen when they took the Drum Corps International (DCI) high percussion score in 1980 and 1981. He marched in the snare line when Milford Shoreliners won the World Open Class B championship in 1977. He also instructed a number of well-known corps, starting as percussion instructor with Cranford Patriots in 1982. In the following years, he worked with Sunrisers, Connecticut Hurricanes and Hawthorne Caballeros. He has been a music effect/percussion judge with the US Bands since 2015. His introduction to the drum corps world started when he played snare drum with Connecticut Classics from 1969 to 1976.
Since David Glyde began serving as music arranger and music director of Blue Devils of Concord, California in 1992, the corps has earned 13 Drum Corps International (DCI) world championships, taking the high drum titles in eight of those years. He had similar success with Syracuse Brigadiers, serving as percussion arranger and consultant when the corps won Drum Corps Associates (DCA) world championships in 1997 and 1999 through 2002, also winning percussion titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002. His achievements overseas are equally impressive: his percussion arrangements and technical expertise have led Japan’s Soka Renaissance Vanguard to an unprecedented 15 national championships through 2019. The International Olympic Committee hired him to coordinate and design the opening ceremony music for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China and for the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia. Other groups that have performed his arrangements include the internationally acclaimed Riverside Community College Marching Tigers; Clovis West High School Indoor Percussion Ensemble, the 1993 Winter Guard International (WGI) world class champions; Magic of Orlando drum corps, 2002 DCI class A champions. He has been a percussion judge with WGI Winter Percussion, Bands of America and the Western Band Association. He played snare drum with Casper Troopers in 1981, with Santa Clara Vanguard in 1982 and 1983 and with Blue Devils in 1984.
Visual:
Eric Kitchenman has been an award winning visual designer and instructor for drum and bugle corps from coast to coast in the United States and across the Atlantic Ocean in the United Kingdom. He was visual designer for Conquest Alliance when they won the 1986 and 1987 Drum Corps United Kingdom (DCUK) championships. He was inducted into the Buccaneer Hall of Fame in 2015; the Keystone Indoor Drill Association (KIDA) Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Crossmen Hall of Fame in 2006. He has been a design analysis judge with Winter Guard Inteernational (WGI) for about 30 years, beginning in 1992. He has been a visual instructor and designer for a number of well-known drum corps in four different decades beginning with Westshoremen in 1982 and 1983. He was visual instructor with four other top rated corps in the 1980s: Valley Fever, Bridgemen, Anaheim Kingsmen and Crossmen. During the 1990s, he was visual designer for Velvet Knights, Skyliners, Spirit of Atlanta. He served as visual designer for the Buccaneers twice: from 2000 to 2004 and again in 2006 and 2007. He was co-designer with Bluecoats in 2001 and designer the following year. He was program coordinator with Crossmen in 2004 and co-program coordinator and visul designer with the Cadets in 2007 and 2008. He served again with the Cadets in 2009 as visual instructor. With Boston Crusaders, he was program coordinator in 2013 and staff coordinator in 2014. His earliest drum and bugle corps experience was playing a baritone horn with Crossmen from 1977 to 1979.
Regular Hall of Fame members are honored for their dedication, contributions and achievements over a long period of time in areas including administration, arranging, adjudication, instruction, innovation and design. Associate members have dedicated at least five consecutive years of service to any drum and bugle corps as a performer or in a support role. President’s Choice award winners are selected for exceptional activities in support of the drum and bugle corps community. International Award recipients are selected on the same criteria as regular members. The Distinguished Professional Achievement award recognizes former drum and bugle corps participants with outstanding career achievements in areas including music and other business activities.
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 two national championship corps in two different eras: the Crusaders and the Empire Statesmen, both of Rochester, New York.
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
