DCA 2022 Championships

[N.E. Brigand]

It's understandable that there's no subforum specifically for Drum Corps Associates, the circuit for North American* all-age drum and bugle corps, which at this time are few in number and mostly found in the northeastern quarter of the U.S., but the annual Championships weekend, whose 2022 iteration is underway now, deserves at least its own thread, so I'm creating it now. I first attended DCA Finals in 2012 and have gone every year of live competition since then, and I've enjoyed myself thoroughly every time.

*Edited to add "North American," since there certainly have been all-age corps on other continents (some of whom have occasionally journeyed here to compete in DCA).

[N.E. Brigand]

(As it happens, there's another Finals I've attended every year since 2012: DCI's Open Class Finals, first in Michigan City, Indiana, and more recently in Marion, Indiana.)

[N.E. Brigand]

If you watched the livestream from DCI Finals a few weeks ago, you may have noticed the historical presentations honoring DCI's 50th anniversary in which it was said that the first modern drum corps national competition was held in 1921 -- and it was a "senior" corps contest, i.e., it featured adults in an event sponsored by one of the big veterans' organizations (I can't remember if they said it was the VFW or the American Legion). It wasn't until 1938, according to that DCI presentation, that there was a national competition for the junior corps. Likewise, the senior corps were the first to organize their own collective to administer competitions: Drum Corps Associates was formed by a group of senior corps in 1964 (with its first competition in 1965), eight years before a group of junior drum corps created Drum Corps International in 1972.

Nowadays the competing senior corps are referred to as "all age" corps, because most or all of them include younger members, and what distinguishes them from the corps who compete in DCI is not just that most or all of them have members older than 22 (the now defunct Cadets² initially limited itself to performers 18 or younger (I think), but in the later years of its short existence that corps' membership included people in the early 20s) but also that they are "weekend warrior" operations, with most of the rehearsal and performances happening just two days a week (plus maybe one weekday evening) because the members have jobs during the week.

And also their season runs later. If you scroll through the historical scores at DCX, you'll see that both senior and junior corps -- particularly those with mostly local membership -- used to compete all year round, but the majority of competitions ran from mid-May through mid-September. The first DCA Championship in 1965 was a one-day event on September 11, but later DCA settled on Labor Day weekend as its regular championship date, with Prelims on Saturday and Finals on Sunday (this helps with travel, as most people are off on Monday). In more recent decades, they've added two ancillary events to the big weekend: an evening of Individual & Ensemble competition culminating in the "Mini Corps" contest, and the "Alumni Spectacular."

For ease of reference, here is DCA's website; note that there streaming available via Box 5 Media: dcacorps.org/.

I will report on each of the events in turn when I get back to my hotel, but I'm just too tired now, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow before discussing what may have been, of its kind, the most perfect drum corps performance I've ever seen live.

[N.E. Brigand]

A quick note on the schedule for the championships weekend, which this year are being held in Rochester, New York:

The I&E and Mini Corps competitions were last night.

The Prelims are today at 4:00 p.m.

The Alumni Spectacular is tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.

And the Finals are tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.

There is a chance of rain, likelier tomorrow than today. Fingers crossed for timing or at least for no thunderstorms.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Prelims were quite entertaining. I'm hoping to report on them after I grab some dinner. For now, I'll just say that if you're free tomorrow evening, I recommend that you consider the streaming option. There are some weaker shows than normal, but others were quite good, and I thought one was flat out great.

[N.E. Brigand]

As noted above, I've attended DCA's Finals every year since 2012 (except 2020, when the pandemic cancelled the season, and 2021, when the Finals were conducted virtually, with each corps filming its show for remote adjudication -- but I did watch the 2021 stream). I also began attending much of the rest of the championship weekend starting in 2014. Over the past 10 years, the championships were twice in Annapolis, Maryland; four times in Rochester, New York; and twice in Williamsport, Pennsylvania; this year and next, they're back in Rochester.

Most years, the I&E events are held on Friday evening, finishing up with the Mini Corps competition, and every year, I have hopes of taking off work early so as to make the four-hour drive in time to watch all of it -- or as much as any one person can see, since there are four simultaneous tracks: visual, percussion, brass solo, and brass ensemble. In Rochester, these events are held in three rooms at the downtown convention center, with the street outside closed for the percussion competition (where there are also food vendors set up). Unfortunately, every year something has come up at work -- this year I had to send job offer letters to some 40 people for some new education programming we're doing -- and I'm never underway before late afternoon. It's four hours to Rochester, and so I arrived last night at more than twenty minutes past nine, when the final event, the Mini Corps competition, was already underway.

It appears that DCI added a "mini corps" competition to the championships weekend in the 1990s, although DCX is missing some scores for the first few years (and From the Pressbox is concerned only with DCI and DCA field corps). DCA's rules define a mini corps as having 5 to 25 performers, or 26 if there's a non-playing drum major, performing a show of 5 to 10 minutes in length (with a one-minute warmup allowed), and playing only brass and percussion instruments. I'm not sure if there's a specific defined playing area, or if that's set from year to year depending on the venue and then communicated to the participating ensembles. Video online shows that the competition was held outside on a football field in 2012 and 2013 with a square performance space that was 60 feet on a side. Most years the competition is held indoors. In Rochester, there is an elevated stage of nearly that size in a ballroom. DCA's Mini Corps competition could be seen as a precursor of DCI's SoundSport events, but a key point to remember is that no visuals whatsoever are required. It is my understanding that in the first years, mini corps regularly performed with music on stands and sometimes seated -- and that is sometimes still seen to this day. The judges are only evaluating music and general effect. It is to boost the latter that the top mini corps usually incorporate some drill into their shows.

There were seven corps participating in this year's competition. I missed the first group entirely: North Coast Brass from Erie, Pennsylvania -- and based on their score, I wish I'd seen them. When I arrived the second group was more than halfway through its performance. That was Phoenix, from Tavares, Florida, with 13 brass players and 2 percussionists. They were playing "Clair de Lune," which was followed by their closer, a faster tune that I didn't recognize that ended rather abruptly. Phoenix was followed by Tri Valley Brass from New Jersey. Their show was titled "Salute to Old Glory" and consisted of "National Emblem," "America the Beautiful," and "The Stars and Stripes Forever." The 13 brass players and 1 percussionist were largely seated with music stands and wore red, white, and blue neckties. I felt their sound was frequently muddy. Maybe they felt rushed, because they were supposed to have gone on fourth, but the third scheduled corps, the Warriors from New York City, were delayed by transportation issues and went on after them. This was the smallest corps, with 8 brass players (all standing) and 1 percussionist, wearing maroon t-shirts and tan baseball caps. They had memorized their music, and I thought they deserved credit both for that and for the difficulty of the arrangements of some tunes that were vaguely familiar -- one might have been "Strawberry Soup". That said, they weren't really pulling it off. I struggled to decide what order to put these three groups in (which was trickier still since I'd only seen part of Phoenix's show); each had different strengths and weaknesses. I also tend to feel that DCA's judges set the scoring floor too high, including in the Mini Corps event, as will be seen when comparing the scores they received from DCA to my scores of 75 for Phoenix, 74 for Tri Valley Brass, and 73 for Warriors.

But that will have to wait until tomorrow -- when I'll also discuss the last three competitors -- because once more I am out of time.

[N.E. Brigand]

And now to the final three performances in the Mini Corps competition. No show title was announced for Brig Juice, from Syracuse, New York, but it was mentioned that the show was dedicated to a key member in the group's history who had lately passed on. This corps was started in 2015 by former members of the now defunct Syracuse Brigadiers, the former all age field corps originally founded in 1938, which first competed in DCA in 1966, placing as high as third before shutting down in 1973; they were relaunched in 1991 and won the DCA championship five times from 1997 to 2002 before going dark again in 2009. Featuring 20 brass players and 1 percussionist, Brig Juice performed a jazzy opener whose title I should know, followed by "Creep," and closing with "MacArthur Park." One of the brass players at times would set down her instrument and add a visual element by dancing with red scarves. I put down a score of 88 for Brig Juice.

I'm going to skip ahead to the night's final corps, the returning champions from 2019: the Freelancers, from Sacramento, California. Formed by alumni of the field corps that was founded in the 1930s and competed in DCI from the 1970s until the 1990s (reaching Finals ten times), the Freelancers Mini Corps has been playing for more than a decade, bringing ever more polished and challenging shows to this event until they finally took the top spot three years ago. The 23 brass players, one percussionist, and a drum major gave an excellent performance Friday night. If the show had a title, I missed it, but the repertoire was "Thriller," "Into the Light," and "One More Time, Chuck Corea." The arrangements were great, the playing was excellent, and they tastefully incorporated both drill and props (folding chairs). It was a wonderful show, and wrote down a score of 96. Three years ago, that would have been high enough to beat the second place corps, but by this point Friday, it was obvious to me that it was the Freelancers who would place second, because:

They had been preceded on stage by Star United, the Mini Corps that was created more than 15 years ago by former members of Star of Indiana, the acclaimed but short-lived DCI corps of the 1980s and 1990s. Star United had won the Mini Corps competition in 12 of 14 consecutive appearances starting in 2006, losing only in 2013 to the now-dormant Ghost Riders, and of course in 2019 to the Freelancers. You know how the Blue Devils in 2014 and the Buccaneers in 2017, both perennial champions who had fallen to second place the previous seasons, came roaring back with shows that crushed the competition? Well, that's how I felt about Star United's performance this year. Titled "West Side Story" and led by their drum major in a white dress, the 20 brass players and 4 percussionists opened with a short pre-announcement warm-up on "Tonight" and they concluded, in what may have been their only possible misstep, with a false ending that brought a standing ovation followed by a fast reprise of the same number. But really, those last 90 seconds were great -- the only thing "wrong" was that they didn't need it, because everything before that was already perfection. I have never seen a better mini corps performance live -- and I was there when they scored 99.5 playing Scheherazade in 2014. (They did score a perfect 100 in 2011 with a show delightfully titled "I Like Tchaik.") My notes say "99?"

And here are the scores awarded by the judges:
1. 99.67 Star United
2. 96.33 Freelancers
3. 87.00 Brig Juice
4. 85.50 North Coast Brass
5. 81.83 Tri Valley Brass
6. 78.00 Warriors
7. 77.50 Phoenix

[N.E. Brigand]

And I'm off to see the Finals. The show starts with some preshow business at 5 p.m. The competitive corps perform in the following order:

Class A
6:00pm – Columbus Saints
6:17pm – Govenaires
6:34pm – Skyliners
6:51pm – Fusion Core

Open Class
7:08pm – Rogues Hollow Regiment
7:25pm – Cincinnati Tradition
7:42pm – Atlanta CV
7:59pm – Hurricanes

World Class
8:16pm – White Sabers
8:33pm – Bushwackers
8:50pm – Caballeros
9:07pm – Buccaneers

Note that there is no intermission.

It was cool and misty at the Alumni Spectacular this morning, and its overcast here now. The National Weather Service says scattered showers before 5 p.m. will be returning "mainly after 1 a.m.," so fingers crossed that the hours in between stay dry. 

[hewhowaits]

Interestingly, I ran across a news feed from a Rochester TV station that talked about the Drum Corps Academy championships being in town this weekend.

Good that it was mentioned in the local media, but c'mon folks - do a little research and get the name of the organization correct.

[Shroom]

Haven't paid very much attention to DCA this season but I saw that the Caballeros were ahead of Buccs for most of it.

Post scores when they're out

[N.E. Brigand]

Sept 4, 2022 15:24:17 GMT -6 hewhowaits said:

Interestingly, I ran across a news feed from a Rochester TV station that talked about the Drum Corps Academy championships being in town this weekend.

Good that it was mentioned in the local media, but c'mon folks - do a little research and get the name of the organization correct.

Too funny! I saw a local news crew just after they wrapped an interview during the intermission yesterday. I encouraged the news team to stay and actually watch some of the second half performances. They said they would, but I wonder.

[N.E. Brigand]

Sept 4, 2022 20:36:36 GMT -6 Shroom said:

Haven't paid very much attention to DCA this season but I saw that the Caballeros were ahead of Buccs for most of it.
Post scores when they're out

DCA Finals, Sep. 4, 2022

World Class
1. 97.600 Buccaneers -- Brass, G.E.
2. 96.725 Caballeros -- Percussion, Visual, Guard
3. 94.600 Bushwackers -- D.M.
4. 90.800 White Sabers

Open Class
1. 89.450 Hurricanes -- Brass, Visual, G.E., Guard
2. 87.750 Atlanta CV -- Percussion
3. 83.350 Cincinnati Tradition
4. 81.475 Rogues Hollow Regiment

Class A
1. 85.257 Fusion Core -- all captions
2. 80.950 Skyliners
3. 78.975 Govenaires
4. 71.675 Columbus Saints

The award for best Drum Major does not affect the overall score. Neither do these awards:

Overall Best Honor Guard: Caballeros
Overall Showmanship: Caballeros flugel horn soloist
Directors of the Year: White Sabers, Atlanta CV, Columbus Saints

It was closer than I expected at the top.

[Shroom]

How was crowd attendance at finals and how is performance quality compared to with previous years? Only vids Ive been able to scratch up regarding Caballeros and Buccs were both early season and if I'm being honest they weren't even on the level of most mid tier high schools discussed on this forum. That never is the case by end season but I'm completely in the dark if that stands true again post pandemic.

I saw a massive thread on DCP a while back that made a pretty clear case for DCA basically being on life support at this point but, I've never actually had the opportunity to watch a comp live since they're always so far away. So, I'm interested to hear if that crowd is correct in saying that DCA's years are numbered in the single digits or not.

[N.E. Brigand]

If we compare to ten years ago:

2012 -- 20 corps in Prelims, 14 corps advance to Finals
2022 -- 12 corps in Prelims, all 12 advance to Finals

2012 -- Finals: 2 scores above 95, 7 scores above 90, 8 scores above 85, 12 scores above 80
2022 -- Finals: 2 scores above 95, 4 scores above 90, 7 scores above 85, 10 scores above 80
And I think the scores are reasonably accurate.

Attendance seemed lighter than previous years in Rochester, and I feel like Annapolis 10 years ago was higher -- although that was the first year I attended, and it was a last-minute decision, and I was able to buy a great ticket, so sales can't have been that strong then.

[N.E. Brigand]

As noted previously, I didn't arrive in time to see any I&E participants except the mini corps, but I did notice during the awards announcements that someone took first place in five different solo percussion categories. And you can see more about that stunt here:

[Subito Fortissimo]

Sept 5, 2022 16:25:21 GMT -6 N.E. Brigand said:

As noted previously, I didn't arrive in time to see any I&E participants except the mini corps, but I did notice during the awards announcements that someone took first place in five different solo percussion categories. And you can see more about that stunt here:

Of course Eric would do something like that 

For those that don't know, Eric Carr marched Jersey Surf and Carolina Crown and later spent a few years marching tenors for the Marine DBC. I recommend giving his channel a follow. He's not only super talented but also a really funny guy.

[LeanderMomma]

Sept 5, 2022 19:33:27 GMT -6 Subito Fortissimo said:

Sept 5, 2022 16:25:21 GMT -6 N.E. Brigand said:

As noted previously, I didn't arrive in time to see any I&E participants except the mini corps, but I did notice during the awards announcements that someone took first place in five different solo percussion categories. And you can see more about that stunt here:

Of course Eric would do something like that 

For those that don't know, Eric Carr marched Jersey Surf and Carolina Crown and later spent a few years marching tenors for the Marine DBC. I recommend giving his channel a follow. He's not only super talented but also a really funny guy.

he is honestly brilliant.

[N.E. Brigand]

I expect to add a couple more posts about DCA championships, but I also wanted to note that the drum corps season continues overseas with the European championships in Dordrecht, Netherlands on September 24.

Unfortunately, two of the top three European corps of recent years, The Company and Kidsgrove Scouts, both from the UK, have ceased operations, possibly forever. The Company came to the U.S. to complete in DCI five or six years ago. Kidsgrove Scouts, a personal favorite of mine, made four appearances at DCA in the 2010s and were going to travel to DCI in 2020.