It’s the most wonderful time of the year and the heat couldn’t hold back my excitement! Even though the show was postponed by an hour to beat the heat, spirits remained high. The excitement of the students was obvious as soon as I entered the stadium.

Drum Corps season is here and I am so happy that the Drum Corps International Central Indiana show was the final concert series performance of the Music for All Summer Symposium. I have been a DCI fan for over 10 years and it was sentimental for me to watch students who are currently around the same age I was when I first became a fan seeing drum corps and enjoying the experience. I think the reason I love drum corps so much is because it’s just that, an experience! I always enjoy watching DCI performances because you can feel the passion from the performers. Knowing how much hard work and energy they put into the rehearsal and performance of their shows is evident. The competition is always fierce and simply hearing that “drum corps sound” is thrilling.

To round out this life-changing week of music, learning, and performance, we enjoyed the performances of eight world class drum corps. The competition ended with an encore performance from our Marching Percussion students alongside the Carolina Crown battery and a performance from the Marching Band Division also alongside Carolina Crown before scores were announced. The winner of the competition was Carolina Crown with a score of 75.5, but every corps who performed tonight was deserving of all of the thundering cheers that echoed across the stadium. This night was one of my favorite experiences of the entire week and I know it was for the students who got to take the field this evening!