A Norwegian in DCI 2011

[corps-mudgeon]

This is how I've seen it work:

1. Video audition with a corps to determine if it would be worth coming over.

2. If so, attend a November or December camp to evaluate you in person.

3. If you are wanted, then they might allow you to sit out the rest of the camps till everydays, or maybe come to one more camp. This might be the April camp, allowing you to stay in the States until everydays.

When camp schedules are posted, you might be able to find two corps that you're interested in that have camps on back to back weekends. If you stay for the week in between, you can then go to two corps and also might get a cheaper air fare for staying a full week.

[Michael Boo]

Did you know there is a drum corps in Sweden? Their name is STRÄNGNÄS. If you want some experience and need to save some money for a season or more before coming to America, they are well worth checking out. Plus, they've come to America a couple of times, so it might be the best of all worlds economically.

This website is in Swedish: http://www.strangnas-scouts.org/

They are also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8036751347

[BRASSO]

Did you know there is a drum corps in Sweden? Their name is STRÄNGNÄS. If you want some experience and need to save some money for a season or more before coming to America, they are well worth checking out. Plus, they've come to America a couple of times, so it might be the best of all worlds economically.

This website is in Swedish: http://www.strangnas-scouts.org/

They are also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8036751347

Excellent suggestion to this poster I'd say, Michael.

Edited February 28, 2010 by BRASSO

[Michael Boo]

Excellent suggestion to this poster I'd say, Michael.

Thank you. I'd still love to see them fulfill their dream, but this could be a realistic and economical way of making sure that eventually happens. And if they want to march in 2011, why not get a little experience in 2010?

I've seen the Swedish corps at DCI Worlds. They're a worthy ensemble.

Here's something I wrote about them a few years back.

Drum Corps Reaches into Scandinavia

By Michael Boo

“I think drum corps is the best you could do for young people!”

We’ve all felt that sentiment here in North America, but now, it’s being proclaimed in some places one might not expect.

In 1996, Lars Östlund founded the first drum corps competition in Sweden, but it wasn’t until after the competition that someone exposed him to DCI drum corps by giving him a video of the 1992 SUMMER MUSIC GAMES World Championships. He remembers, “When I saw the video, I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was awesome!”

Two years later, in 1998, Lars met one of the people featured on that video, former Cavaliers percussion arranger and instructor Jim Campbell. Jim was in Sweden to conduct percussion clinics, and his contact person was a friend of Lars.

Inspired by what he learned from Jim about drum corps in America, he brought his own corps, the Strängnäs Drum and Bugle Corps, to Orlando in 1998 to witness first-hand the SUMMER MUSIC GAMES.

This past year, Lars offered himself as a volunteer for Cavaliers, using the experience as a chance to learn how to conduct practices and tours.

The first corps in Sweden was founded in 1972, but it didn’t resemble what one thinks of as a contemporary drum corps. Currently, Göteborg Drum Corps and Gislaved Drum and Drill Corps both feature marching battery and mallet percussion, but no brass. Another corps, Falköping Drum Corps, has trumpets, but no pit. Percussion includes traditional snare drums, one bass drum, and two cymbals, comparable to a Swedish military corps.

The Swedish Army Corps is comprised of brass, flutes, old-fashioned snare drums, one bass drum, and two cymbals. Despite the traditional instrumentation, it was founded as recently as 1993.

Only Strängnäs and Helsingborgs Drum Corps are similar to what North Americans would recognize as a contemporary drum and bugle corps; with bell front brass, field percussion, and a pit. Strängnäs is the bigger of the two units, with members from 12 to 22 years in age; including 16 brass players, 6 snares, 3 quads, 5 bass drums, and 6 pit percussionists.

Some of the corps play marches, while others play pop tunes and themes from movies. For 2001, Strängnäs is featuring a collection of pop and Latin tunes and chorales that have a Swedish flavor.

Lars founded Strängnäs in 1990 as a corps similar to the yet-to-be-founded Army Corps, as he had marched in the Swedish Army Band, a marching ensemble. At the time, he thought drum corps in America would be just like the Swedish groups. But when he learned otherwise by viewing the DCI video, he was inspired to convert the corps to an instrumentation similar to that used by the American corps movement.

Currently, the corps have no guard, as there is no tradition of color guard in Sweden. Lars sees that as the biggest problem to overcome, complicated by the fact there is no tradition of marching bands in the schools.

There are, however, a few woodwind bands that convert to marching bands a couple times a year. But the lack of tradition in the marching activities makes recruitment difficult. For now, there is only one drum corps competition and one marching band competition in the entire country, so naturally, there is no touring. However, corps have attended competitions in England and The Netherlands.

Judging panels in Sweden range from three to five judges, depending on the year, with some judging music and the others judging visual.

Members of Swedish corps tend to be from the same city, so each corps contains the name of their home city in their name. Strängnäs is not just the name of Lars’ corps, but also that of the city that it calls home.

Lars says the corps in Sweden are dedicated to advancing towards a level of competition excellence that uses American corps proficiency as the standard. His goal is to create one very good corps that will serve as model for new corps in Sweden, in order to inspire the movement to move forward.

To help the members of his own corps comprehend what lies ahead for them, Strängnäs is visiting the United States this coming summer. Lars wants the corps members model their vision for the future of Swedish drum corps on what they will see during this visit.

With only four years of competitive history, the Swedish drum corps movement is just beginning to develop and flourish. But with people such as Lars Östlund dedicated to see it grow and prosper, one can be assured that the “I” in DCI continues to live up to its promise of serving and inspiring youth around the world into the 21st Century and beyond.

[euponitone]

Im pretty good friends with a guy whom (I believe) is the only french citizen to ever have marched DCI (scouts). As far as I know, he sent a video over, they said they were interested in him, and he went to one or two camps before spring training. You are also miles ahead of him because you can already speak english well, whereas he could not.

[84BDsop]

Im pretty good friends with a guy whom (I believe) is the only french citizen to ever have marched DCI (scouts). As far as I know, he sent a video over, they said they were interested in him, and he went to one or two camps before spring training. You are also miles ahead of him because you can already speak english well, whereas he could not.

Didn't he march the 04 corps?? I think I remember reading about him....mellophone, IIRC.

[CasualFan]

Did you know there is a drum corps in Sweden? Their name is STRÄNGNÄS. If you want some experience and need to save some money for a season or more before coming to America, they are well worth checking out. Plus, they've come to America a couple of times, so it might be the best of all worlds economically.

This website is in Swedish: http://www.strangnas-scouts.org/

They are also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8036751347

According to the schedule on their website, they are planning to come to the U.S. and compete in DCI again this year.

[euponitone]

Didn't he march the 04 corps?? I think I remember reading about him....mellophone, IIRC.

trumpet....and yes, it was 2004

[AlanAndreasen]

I would have to say that corps really go out of their way to help international potential marchers limit their costs. My personal experience is that when marchers cross an ocean or a continent they really, really want to be here. They are people who (quite often) have spent years working hard for a shot at this amazing activity. They pack their lives into one or two suitcases, jump on a plane, and throw themselves headfirst into an adventure.

In the 90's I had the opportunity to encourage members to come and march from England and the Netherlands. If nothing else, the cultural exchange was amazing. A bunch of small town, midwestern, young adults became life-long friends with folks who grew up 5,000 away. Any corps director worth anything gets this.

I take it you have an EEC passport. Into the US this should allow you any visit for "pleasure" (Ha!) for up to 6 months.

You've started your journey the right way. I wish you all the luck in the world, but I'm also guessing you'll not going to need it.

Oh, and if we ever meet, lunch is on me.

[luis]

Hello everyone, this will be my first post here. I'm going to present myself here because it's closely related to this topic.

I'm a 18 year old musician from Norway, with euphonium as my main instrument. I discovered drum corps a while ago, and I'm just falling more and more in love with it, so now, I seek the help and knolwedge of this forum to realise my biggest dream: Marching with a DCI world class corps.

The (main) question is: How should I do this?

-Do most drum corps allow foreigners to march with them? Or do I have to make a special arrangement?

-Auditions: Considering where I live, I suppose I will only be able to meet up physically for the audidion of one corps. As I want to max out my chances of getting in, I would like to audition for more corps trough videos. Is that possible?

-Plane tickets are pricey and will probably limit my possibilities to attend all camps held during spring. How much understanding can I get for that?

-Are there any legal issues?

-How should I prepare? My musical level is pretty good, but my marching skills is somewhat limited. I suppose I need to practise marcing a lot, and build up some more strenght in my upper body, at least. . .

-Something I haven't considered?

That's a lot of questions, but I hope you can help me

(I apologize in advance for any typing errors; I wrote this a little late in the night)

You should really try Pioneer if you want to march this year and not wait for another year