MadisonBandMan1

Awesome to hear the percussion talent is up. Bodes well for the season, and I’d assume the same will be the case for guard given our great guard staff and KP returning.

Dang it, it’s not yet 😢 Time marches on, slowly.

Checking in again, any camp details? Is it May yet?

Happy New Year everyone! Now that camp season has started, any predictions for what direction the corps goes this season, especially now that Potter is back at the helm? And for those of you with kids either returning or auditioning this season, how are your kids liking camp season so far?

I’m a young’n - would you mind explaining the reference/what you mean please? Sorry! 😂

Visual staff announced today per instagram.

So we are apparently getting Potter AND Rosie? Oh the DCI world doesn't know whats coming for them *clasps hands together with a grin from ear to ear and a light but joyful chuckle*

I will say, they split their spring training between Heroes and Commander. Commander was not as nice, a lot older of a stadium. That was also probably part of the decision to move…that and our band director being promoted to district music director going into the 2019-2020 school year probably severed their ties with our school program.

This is correct, though I didn’t know it was particularly a bad experience for them, because heroes is such a nice stadium - or was at the time. The press box there was rather large, but I guess not large enough for 180 people to be fair. They also used our campus for camps and slept in our Performing Arts Center from time to time, especially during camp season. Someone mentioned a former staff member’s past in this thread, for what it’s worth he was also on our staff in a tech/assistant role during the marching season a few times but was removed when his past came forward. I miss watching their camps and going to their MMX events as a student. I had soooo much fun summer of 2019, that corps was filled with excitement for the future that year only for it to be blown up immediately following the season. They felt like they were about to hit a big stride forward. That show was definitely a fan favorite that season and for good reason. I forget the name of their brass caption head that season but he was awesome and did great things with that line. Crown alumni and it was clear through his influences in his teaching style, which worked wonders with that brass line.

It used to be at my home stadium in San Antonio just a few short years ago. Wonder when they changed that. They held their spring training at least up until the summer of 2019.

I wonder if Potter comes back to crown...one can only wish though LOL

That would be a real cool opportunity to do some Prokofiev as well!

First off I wanted to tell you what an amazing season and show you guys had this year, and there is so much you all have to be proud of! Was not an easy show whatsoever, with some really great show music and drill. What was your favorite movement in the show, and what did the members overall think of the show throughout the season? Are you guys excited to see what this team can accomplish next season? I know I am! What kind of superserum did Matt inject in yall the last two weeks of the season because yall made such massive strides in such a short time it was incredible to see. Was the final ending of the show the original planned ending, or something they developed over time?

I also would like to see crown try a slow, emotional ending to a show and not so bombastic. It works well for them, but I think tackling an emotional show with a slow, yet climactic ending would be amazing.

I agree with NewArpege on all of those points I have also been screaming from my chest for a few years now but I want them to do a deeply emotional show about war, particularly WW2, or rather, the effects of war on the people. I wrote up a whole show design myself for this because its something I want to see put on the field. I am not talking about something like Boom or the show that one of the blue corps did a few years ago (I can't remember which one) but a show really embracing the pain and suffering that war brings. Something absolutely gutwrenching and painful, I feel like that would be a GE monster and would hold the crowd at the tip of their fingers. Show the effects of famine, the pain of dictatorship, the hardening of the heart fighting a war in adverse conditions. This is where I think a music and drill package of the standards of the 2012 show would have massive impact, using the full potential of the front ensemble - two timpani sets and concert bass drums, crash cymbals etc. For the ballad, I wouldn't want something necessarily modern as the ballad, but it also isn't a classical orchestral piece. I have said many times I reallllly want Klesch to get his hands on the old Russian war hymn that Boston used parts of in Animal Farm, "Polye Polushka." Slow it down and treat it like a ballad ala Balmages' "Moscow, 1941," and it would have so much emotional impact that there would not be a dry eye in the stadium and you might hear a pin drop in the silence. I sincerely think Wes would excel in a show design of this style. The show doesn't have to be a story show, this is all purely conceptual and thematic and I think it would work so well for the field. If anyone wants to know the pain I mean in songwriting and show writing, please watch this. This is the kind of emotion I want in a show from crown.