Blue Devils All-Star Drumline Headed to Lithuania

[whitedawn]

Scott Johnson and the Blue Devils all-star drumline will be presenting a System Blue Clinic in Vilnius, Lithuania on May 11 and 12.

The clinic is sponsored and funded by Artspark, which is a Lithuanian non-profit organization founded by Daniel Ray and myself. (Similar to an American 501c3 organization.) Artspark's main program offering is Baltic Brass, which is a group of more than 200 kids ages 6-21. We provide 8-12 hours of world class instruction weekly in music and movement. Participation in Baltic Brass is 100% cost-free to the students.

The Blue Devils will also be performing in Vilnius' Cathedral Square on the evening of May 12, so if you're not interested in attending the clinic, come on by anyway. All events are free and open to the public! Vilnius is easily accessible by air from most points in Europe. (Actually, you can get there in ten hours flat from JFK, if you get the right flight through Helsinki.)

You can read more about Artspark and Baltic Brass here: http://www.artspark.org/

You can read more about the clinic (and register, if you are interested) here: http://www.artspark.org/events/system-blue-lithuania/

For more information, feel free to PM me or Daniel Ray. Also, we're always looking for guest clinicians, so if you've got an hour to spare on a Saturday and may be up for changing the lives of some underprivileged kids via Skype, we'd love to hear from you.

[whitedawn]

Oh, and for those of you who can read Lithuanian (I defintely cannot) here's the poster that is hanging in every bus stop in Vilnius, and soon to be on pretty much every giant billboard in the city:

[danielray]

A two hour flight.... yes please.

Does the event have a website?

www.artspark.org

Short flights from nearly everywhere in Europe. Extremely inexpensive to hang out.

There will also be a small percussion festival and a street festival going on at the same time, loads of stuff happening in addition to BD.

[danielray]

still can't figure out how this works or what the model is or if this is transferable to other orgs?

The model could be transferrable to other corps. It simply requires a local partner organization to sponsor and promote the event.

[danielray]

Curious though

Do the drummers have to pay to go or are they being paid?

Performers and clinicians are guest of the local sponsor in these cases.

Where is the money, who is paying and who is getting paid for it, that non-profit that is picking up the bill and who are they (name, link, please)and how much of the bill?

Artspark is covering 100% of all costs. It is also free for all participants and open to any kid who wants to show up, regardless of experience. Artspark is pretty much Sam and myself.

Do you have any media promoting this event that you can link here, I’m curious about the Blue Devils branding on this sort of event

Billboards are coming up this week all across the city, bus shelter posters, newspaper ads, media articles, guys will play on morning tv news programs... several rock/pop musicians are promoting this through their own outlets. A couple of the performances will be with BD drummers and musicians that are very popular in this part of Europe.

All brand placement/mention is done according to BD style guide and under their direction.

what's on the program and whats the prep for this?

A camp, some performances, a lot of fun. A lot of work by some great people.

How will it reflect upon the Blue Devils brand; what are the expectation, guarantee of quality – is it going to more than a bunch of dusties playing Ditty and other warm ups?

It will reflect on the BD brand in exactly the same way everything they do does, no matter where they are in the world. The guarantee of quality... you're kidding, right?

Keep in mind that this sort of thing is not a competitive event and the goals are considerably different. The goals here are to increase the awareness of marching music among the general population of a part of the world where it is non-existent, to share best practices with educators in the region, to provide an great and influential experience for both the kids involved and the performers.

It's going to be fun. :-)

[MikeD]

Keep in mind that this sort of thing is not a competitive event and the goals are considerably different. The goals here are to increase the awareness of marching music among the general population of a part of the world where it is non-existent, to share best practices with educators in the region, to provide an great and influential experience for both the kids involved and the performers.

It's going to be fun. :-)

The last line is enough justification all by itself!

Kudos you yourself and Sam...sounds like a wonderful event you have set up.

Best of luck!

I hope you can post some video of the event after it happens.

[84BDsop]

At the end of all of this, wouldn't it be great if Baltic Brass could come over and perform at DCI? Even a standstill at a few of the late season shows and maybe prelims or (dare I say it) bringing the top 12 onto the field for Finals retreat would really make an impact on those kids.

[whitedawn]

At the end of all of this, wouldn't it be great if Baltic Brass could come over and perform at DCI? Even a standstill at a few of the late season shows and maybe prelims or (dare I say it) bringing the top 12 onto the field for Finals retreat would really make an impact on those kids.

Some day, man. We need some more external support before we try to make a move like that. I'm actually in the process of finding a way to associate our US non-profit with Artspark so that contributions from Americans would be tax deductible to American taxpayers.

Interesting thing -- for many of these kids, hot water that comes out of the faucet is an unreliable luxury. An airplane ride may as well be a spaceship.

[fsubone]

This is cool that they are heading over to do this. Makes me wonder why more corps don't do international events and recruiting like this? Seems like it would be a great way for DCI to get more international and spread the goodwill around.

[normy diploome]

This is cool that they are heading over to do this. Makes me wonder why more corps don't do international events and recruiting like this? Seems like it would be a great way for DCI to get more international and spread the goodwill around.

While some live on Planet Galactica imaging drum corps to the end of the galaxies, most corps budgets this year are dealing with the reality of the high unemployment in our nation, the realization that our favorite activity is a luxury item, and that many alumni are now more concerned with sheltering the homeless and feeding the hungry in their own families and neighborhoods whether they be the flooded towns of the Midwest, the shorelines which saw Superstorm Sandy, or the plains States dealing with drought and blizzards suffering good farmland. Talking with corps administrators, they are worried because of how tough the members are finding it to pay tour fees besides the customers paying ticket prices to balance budgets. Even Whitedawn admits that his Baltic effort is but a distraction for these kids who lack running hot water. Yes, music and beauty is an integral part of civilization and the human spirit. But if we are to stretch the activity, make sure the priorities are rightly ordered, not fantasies.