Big Will Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 (edited) As far as member base is concerned, metro Atlanta is pretty diverse, I've met many members particularly from Cavaliers, Phantom and Cadets from cities surrounding Atlanta. The major world class corps are pretty predictable geographically... Spirit & Crown There are shows in Alpharetta, the Atlanta regional of course, and also one only 1 1/2 hours west of Atlanta at Jacksonville State University. I actually attend Kennesaw Mountain HS, where there have been MANY drum corps members in the 8 or so years of the school's existence, including the 2007 members, 4 of which were in Carolina Crown, 3 in Spirit. & The current new conductor at Phantom Regiment, Koji Mori. Edited November 29, 2007 by Big Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKBari Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 For all of you Georgians, I have a few questions. What's the atmosphere down there like in terms of drum corps? I'm moving to Macon in the Spring and was kinda wondering if there ae alot of fans in the area. Also how are the bands down there, as im looking to tech somewhere too. Do any corps hold camps there? How bout indoor drumlines or guards? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Any info on college marching bands down there would be awesome too There's plenty to do in Georgia depending on what you're looking for. Georgia has 2 all-age corps in CorpsVets and Alliance. There's Atlanta Quest if you want to do indoor percussion and a number of schools in Metro Atlanta sponsor their own winter guards and indoor percussion lines. As for as junior corps go, Teal Sound recruits heavily in South Georgia and Spirit and Crown pop up in North Georgia. With the high schools, a warning is in order. in Metro Atlanta, you're going to get a mix of bands. Both corps style and show bands. There's no "circuit" per se in Georgia, but there's a competition somewhere every weekend during the Fall. The BOA Regional in Atlanta draws a good deal of the top bands. Now here's a warning: If you're moving to the Macon area, realize that Macon is the largest urban area in Central Georgia with most if not all of the high schools competing in AAAAA, which is the largest classification. Look on Wiki for Macon high schools and see which ones have websites. Once you get outside Macon, the sizes of the schools drops DRAMATICALLY. Many of the schools are very small and some are the only high school in the county, so do your research. Here's a list of college marching bands (I might leave off one or two) and the type of bands they are: Corps Style University of Georgia Georgia Tech Georgia Southern West Georgia Valdosta State Show Bands Morehouse Clark-Atlanta University Albany State Fort Valley State Savannah State Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gray487 Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 I think this is a big year for Revolution!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boacavietob Posted November 29, 2007 Author Share Posted November 29, 2007 Thanks everyone for all of the information. From the looks of it, it looks like Georgia has alot going on. I'm probably going to end up going to Kennesaw State which i think is right in the middle of where all the good bands are and not too far from Atlanta either. Its nice to see that the whole southern hospitality thing is true. Thanks guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKBari Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 Thanks everyone for all of the information. From the looks of it, it looks like Georgia has alot going on. I'm probably going to end up going to Kennesaw State which i think is right in the middle of where all the good bands are and not too far from Atlanta either. Its nice to see that the whole southern hospitality thing is true. Thanks guys. Seeing as how you'll be attending college in Kennesaw, you'll see some good action with all the Cobb County and North Fulton bands. You will not be disappointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBleedGreen03 Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 One thing I just recently learned is that the Spirit of Atlanta used to be based in Peachtree City (where most of the schools I just listed are located), but I think they were known as Spirit of Georgia at that point (someone please confirm this). If I'm not mistaken, Spirit just started out as Spirit of Atlanta, had some financial problems and had to fold for a few years, and now they are Spirit from JSU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKBari Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 If I'm not mistaken, Spirit just started out as Spirit of Atlanta, had some financial problems and had to fold for a few years, and now they are Spirit from JSU. Spirit never folded. They became "Spirit of Georgia" in 1993 and then took 1994 off to re-organize. They came back in 1995 as Spirit of Atlanta which they remained until the move to Jacksonville State. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacquesb Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 Thanks everyone for all of the information. From the looks of it, it looks like Georgia has alot going on. I'm probably going to end up going to Kennesaw State which i think is right in the middle of where all the good bands are and not too far from Atlanta either. FYI: Ga Tech allows students from local colleges that do not have bands of their own to march in their band. There are a number of Kennesaw and Ga State students in the GT band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssorrell Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 Many people have replied and given you some good info...I'll add a little more... Drum corps: Macon and the surrounding area has not seen much drum corps activity for years. We have had shows in Macon once or twice way back in the 80s, but to the best of my knowledge, nothing since. The high school bands in the area are not known for their competitiveness, and with that kind of atmosphere it's hard to have a good base of drum corps fans since the closest show will be at least 2 hours away. Back in the 80s when we (Spirit) were still based in Atlanta, we had camps and rehearsals all over the state, but never in the Macon area. It was just sort of a drum corps dead zone. That's not to say that there aren't drum corps fans in Macon, as I'm sure there are, but the acceptance of the activity into the area just never came to pass. High school bands: again...not known for their band programs. Big schools...mediocre bands at best. The hotbed of marching band activity in the state is definitely in Cobb County. There are some other good bands in Coweta County, which is closer to Macon 30 miles south of the Atlanta metro area... Newnan HS under the direction of a former Garfield Cadet from the 80s, and Northgate HS, directed by Alan Armstrong, a former Spirit member,soloist, and staffer. Thanks to EKBari for setting the record straight about the Spirit info. We were indeed the "Spirit of Georgia" for one brief season, and that was the decision of Bob Hoehn...a former Cavalier from the 60s and one of the co-founders of Spirit. He came to be on our adminstration staff again in the early 90s. He was indeed on staff for MacIntosh HS band in Peachtree City, who were patterned at times after the Cavaliers. Although there was a definite connection there, I don't know if it is true the the Cavies tested their championship show on MacIntosh band first...it's not as if they hadn't done The Planets before. About the Spirit of Georgia thing...it's also odd that during the last week or two of that 1993 season, the corps was announced as being from Peachtree City, GA and Wichita Falls, TX. Bob Hoehn was so impressed with the show of support by the corps' housing in Wichita Falls, that he gave them a special nod by having them announced as one of the corps' home bases. I didn't understand that, but his heart was always in the right place, and he just wanted to show the corps' deep appreciation towards our host in Wichita Falls. We found during the 1993 season that the "support" that we thought we were going to get in Peachtree City never panned out to be of much significance. We had changed the name to Spirit of Georgia, again to show that we appreciated the support that Peachtree City was going to give for that season. Atlanta had never done much for the corps, so the name change was not that terrible, although changing the traditional name was not welcomed by many fans and alumni. Either way, our "stay" in Peachtree City was short lived, and after a brief hiatus from the field in 1994, the corps returned in 1995 and was again the Spirit of Atlanta. During this time the corps went through a major change in directorship, with Bill Duquette taking the helm for his first year of several. And then of course, we made the decision to move to JSU in the fall of 2000, as well as name Ken Bodiford the Exec Director. There's your Spirit history since 1993 in a nutshell. And as someone else may have pointed out, there is no state band circuit or championship in GA...or AL for that matter. In fact, not many southern states have such a thing, as far as I know...but I don't know why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UWGKKpsi Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 Thanks everyone for all of the information. From the looks of it, it looks like Georgia has alot going on. I'm probably going to end up going to Kennesaw State which i think is right in the middle of where all the good bands are and not too far from Atlanta either. Its nice to see that the whole southern hospitality thing is true. Thanks guys. Give the Univ. of West Ga a glance before your final decision! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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