AZcoltcontra

Corps Name: Xpress Corps Division (World, Open, Class A): World Corps Hometown: Phoenix AZ www.drumcorpsfantasy.com username: ariq2112 Homeshow site and venue request: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, AZ or University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ Corps Name: Crimson Kings Corps Division (World, Open, Class A): Open Corps Hometown: Phoenix, AZ Homeshow site and venue request: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, AZ or University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ Corps Name: Chroma Key Corps Division (World, Open, Class A): A Corps Hometown: Phoenix, AZ Homeshow site and venue request: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, AZ or University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ

Corps Name: Xpress Corps Division (World, Open, Class A): World Corps Hometown and Region: Phoenix, AZ www.drumcorpsfantasy.com username: AZcoltcontra Homeshow site and venue request: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, AZ Corps Name: Crimson Kings Corps Division (World, Open, Class A): Open Corps Hometown and Region: Phoenix, AZ www.drumcorpsfantasy.com username: AZcoltcontra Homeshow site and venue request: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, AZ Corps Name: Chroma Key Corps Division (World, Open, Class A): Class A Corps Hometown and Region: Phoenix, AZ www.drumcorpsfantasy.com username: AZcoltcontra Homeshow site and venue request: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, AZ

*whew* Ok. So yay for scores bring posted! Although, when I went to check the Desert Skies scores they were nowhere to be seen. My schedule was up and my captions were up. However under further inspection, my captions had vanished!(I missed the earlier memo) So NEW captions were made fairly quickly, and hopefully this can be seen as a "late start" for Xpress, Crimson Kings, and Chroma Key. Xpress and Crimson Kings should have premiered at Fresno Chroma Key was to premier at West Covina. All three of my corps should be now premiering at Anaheim pending everything goes smoothly (no bus breakdowns, etc ) I promise we are back and haven't gone anywhere!

Corps Name: Xpress Corps Division (World, Open, Class A): World Corps Hometown and Region: Phoenix, AZ-West www.drumcorpsfantasy.com username: AZcoltcontra Homeshow site and venue request: Tempe AZ, Sun Devil Stadium Corps Name: Crimson Kings Corps Division (World, Open, Class A): Open Corps Hometown and Region: Phoenix, AZ-West www.drumcorpsfantasy.com username: AZcoltcontra Homeshow site and venue request: Tempe AZ, Sun Devil Stadium Corps Name: Chroma Key Corps Division (World, Open, Class A): Class A Corps Hometown and Region: Phoenix, AZ-West www.drumcorpsfantasy.com username: AZcoltcontra Homeshow site and venue request: Tempe AZ, Sun Devil Stadium

Greetings DCPI corps, staff, fans, etc, We at Desert Skies Youth Organization wish you seasons greetings as Season XV of DCPI is now underway! I thought I would take some time to inform you of happenings on the DSYO homefront, announce shows for all THREE(!) of our corps, and introduce you to our newest members CHROMA KEY To start off, we had many decisions to make in our tour scheduling. Ultimately we could not afford to send all three of our corps "around the world in 80 days" so to speak. As much as we would have loved to send Xpress on a European tour and Crimson Kings on an Asian tour, which was the plan at one point, we gave the members a choice at traveling or staying in the U.S. As our home shows are rather late in the season this winter the members chose the latter, plus this would give everyone the chance take Chroma Key under our wing as they undergo their inaugural season. Now that that business is aside, here's the good stuff - Show Announcements! Continuing in their recent classical vein, our veteran World Class corps, the two-time Arizona State Champions Xpress, will be performing Modest Mussorgsky's PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION. "This is something we've been wanting to do for some time. I've always felt that there was a way to adapt this wonderful piece of music to the football field and with the staff we have set I think we'll be able to pull it off." said Aaron Hudson, director of Xpress and executive director of Desert Skies. Xpress opened their season last night in San Diego to enormous applause as they opened the season #1 in DCPI overall, a whole point and half ahead of competition. "That was unexpected, but not unusual. The kids are extremely hard workers, extremely driven, we've always been good, [always been] sort of a hidden force deep within the bowels of the DCPI community. I think this season we'll finally break the mold a little bit and come out of our shells." Crimson Kings, DSYO's Open Class corps and Marching Music's Premier Progressive Rock Ensemble, will be performing THE CHRISTMAS ATTIC their second show based on Tran-Siberian Orchestra's trilogy of Christmas albums. "We had A LOT of success with our last TSO show," said Hudson,"I think people really took it to heart because TSO goes hand in hand for the holiday season for many people. We're excited to see where this one takes us." And finally, introducing DSYO's brand new Class A corps, Chroma Key. "We've been wanted to implement a third corps for a few seasons but never really had an idea of how we wanted to go about it. Finally this fall we started discussing different corps themes. One thing we really liked was the idea of having a Movie Corps, a corps that specialized in a repertoire of movie soundtracks. The name Chroma Key comes from the "Green Screen" CGI technology. We know with this theme we are setting ourselves up to succeed as their are A LOT of great soundtracks and scores out there, especially within the last few years. Some things you might hear from them will be Star Wars, Star Trek, Back to the Future, Pirates, Avatar, Batman, and others down the road. Right now we are extremely excited for the show we have in store for you this year." Chroma Key will be performing the music of Tron and Tron: Legacy in the aptly titled show THE GRID for their inaugural season. Expect uniform pictures and other details regarding Chroma Key soon!

Class A: Chroma Key

Better late than never I guess, but I've been wanting to do this for awhile... Corps Name: Chroma Key (might be changed later idk) Corps Division: A Corps Hometown: Phoenix, AZ www.drumcorpsfantasy.com username: AZcoltcontra 2nd half season tour option (US, Europe, Asia): US Homeshow site: Phoenix metro area And with that, Desert Skies Youth Organization now has 3 corps!

Corps Name: Xpress Corps Division: World Corps Hometown: Phoenix, AZ www.drumcorpsfantasy.com username: AZcoltcontra 2nd half season tour option (US, Europe, Asia): US Homeshow site: Phoenix metro area Corps Name: Crimson Kings Corps Division: Open Corps Hometown: Phoenix, AZ www.drumcorpsfantasy.com username: AZcoltcontra 2nd half season tour option (US, Europe, Asia): US Homeshow site: Phoenix metro area

Tempe! Finals home show for the Desert Skies Org! Tucson =

After a long discussion process, we here at Desert Skies are pleased to announce our show concepts, tour schedules, etc for the upcoming season! Upon our return home from Season XIII finals, there was much discussion about what to do with the options presented to us concerning a multitude of new opportunities from last season. In regards to the traveling experiences for the whole organization at large, we encountered so much throughout our tour legs in Mexico, Canada, and Europe. And definitely spent a lot of money! But it was all worth it, as many of us have never been outside of the states. This year, Xpress will be in attendance at a one-off show in Mexico City apart from our regularly scheduled US tour. We will hopefully head to Europe again this winter or next summer. Lots of exciting things are also happening here at Desert Skies, our Youth Orchestra and Choirs have played at the Phoenix Symphony Hall, which was a very intimidating and exciting experience for those young kids. Our Winter Drumline and Winterguard have had the most successful season to date. And additionally, our drum corps have been outfitted with new instruments and (hopefully) new uniforms will on the way soon as well. Now to get down to business, here are our highly anticipated Season XIV show concepts. We've taken much pride in them, and think they are some our most progressive ones to date! Xpress will be performing: The Skies Above Selections: -1000 Planes on the Roof (Philip Glass) -South Side of the Sky (by the band Yes) -A Ballad Medley with: Red Rain / Sky Blue (Peter Gabriel) and Sky Blue (Maria Schneider) -New Day Rising Symphony: Mvt. 3: And the Earth Trembled (Steven Reineke) -Firebird Suite (Stravinsky) Crimson Kings will be performing: En3gma: The Music of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer Selections: -Opener: The Endless Enigma (with Fanfare for the Common Man quote) -Production: Trilogy -Segue: Two Part Invention in D Minor -Ballad: Lucky Man -Drum Solo: Knife Edge / Tank / Black Moon (with Hoedown quote) -Closer: Karn Evil 9

DCP-I Username: (The one for the DCPI site, not this one) AZcoltcontra Corps Name: Xpress Corps Division: World Class Corps Hometown: Phoenix, AZ DCP-I Username: (The one for the DCPI site, not this one) AZcoltcontra Corps Name: Crimson Kings Corps Division: Open Class Corps Hometown: Flagstaff, AZ

Really digging the guard designs. The flags look cool!

Haha yeah. Tis the season!

Xpress Season 13 itinerary!! Dec 4 - Corps Move in Dec 5-19 - Tumbleweed Tour Dec 20-26 - Christmas Break Dec 28-Jan 5 - Tumbleweed Tour resumes Jan 6 - Exhibition at Riverside, CA West Coast Tour Jan 8- Fremont, CA Jan 9 - Stanford, CA Jan 11 - Redding, CA Jan 12 - Grant's Pass, OR Jan 13 - Eugene, OR Jan 15 - Monroe, WA Canadian Tour Jan 16 -Vancouver, BC Jan 20 - Edmonton, AB Jan 21 - Saskatoon, SK Jan 23 - Calgary, AB Tour Down the Rockies Jan 25 - Casper, WY Jan 26 - Aurora, CO Jan 27 - Alberquerque, NM Jan 28 - Canyon, TX Jan 29 - Dallas, TX (DCPI Regionals) European Tour Feb 1 - Dublin, IRE Feb 3 - Leeds, UK Feb 5 - Sheffield, UK Feb 6 - London, UK Feb 8 - Monte Carlo, MON Feb 9 - Paris, FRA Feb 12 - Cologne, GER Feb 13 - Berlin, GER (DCPI European Championships) Nashville Procession Tour Feb 20 - Tempe, AZ Feb 22 - Tucson, AZ Feb 23 - Roswell, NM Feb 24 - Edmond, OK Feb 28 - Little Rock, AR March 1 - Memphis, TN March 3 - Nashville, TN (World Class Prelims) March 4 - Nashville, TN (World Class Quarters) March 5 - Nashville, TN (World Class Semis) March 6 - Nashville, TN (World Class Finals)

The Phoenix metropolis has been bustling with drum corps related activity as the Desert Skies Youth Organization fixes to send their DCP ensembles on the road for yet another exciting season. Entering its fifth tour of DCP World Class competition, Xpress will be performing a show based on Russian composer Pyoter Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite in Season 13, which will be DCP's annual off season tour extending over the winter months. Coming off a very successful 2nd tour, The Crimson Kings, proclaimed "Marching Music's Premier Progressive Rock Ensemble," will be performing it's first in a trilogy of Christmas themed shows based on the music of Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The show is titled Christmas in Siberia and the music will consist of selections from TSO's first album titled Christmas Eve and Other Stories. "We've been wanting to do a Christmas themed show for quite some time now," said the Desert Skies executive director yesterday, "One of our favorite artists to listen to around the corps office this time of year is Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Originally we wanted to do a TSO show with Xpress, but now that [Crimson] Kings are here, it's the perfect concept for them, it just fits. With Xpress, we're going to turn to a more classical theme for the next year, starting with the Nutcracker in Season 13, and then with Pictures at an Exhibition for Season 14." Both corps move in next week for the pre-season all-days "Tumbleweed Tour" followed by a Christmas break. Stay tuned for a complete tour listing soon!