Posted: Thursday, July 6, 2006 7:00 pm
Thursday, four national championship-winning drum and bugle corps will invade Memorial Stadium for the Cornhusker Summer Music Games and official competition of Drum Corps International (DCI).
BY JOEL GEHRINGER | GZO
Wake up at 7 a.m. from a cold, high school gymnasium floor. Go outside for morning conditioning and calisthenics, then run several miles. Come back to the field, practice for the entire day, then take a quick breather before performing with breakneck speed and fine-tuned precision.
Take your bows, pack up your things, eat a quick meal on the bus, then start driving to the next town.
Arrive at yet another high school gym at 3 a.m., pull out a sleeping bag and nod off to sleep on the cold, wooden floor.
Wake up at 7 a.m. and repeat — for the next four months.
And quit complaining, soldier, you’re in the drum corps now.
n n n
It’s no easy task being in a drum and bugle corps.
Just ask Jeff Richmond, a graduate assistant with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Cornhusker Marching Band and a former drum major with the Alabama-based corps Spirit.
“We always used to joke and say it’s about the best way to lose weight on the planet,” he said. “There’s really no way to describe what all of this does to you, because you’re not ready for it. There’s no way to describe how it changes your life.”
A typical drum corps is comprised of high school and college students under age 21, who are handpicked by the corps after extensive auditions.
That’s right, these kids are volunteering for this life.
Thursday, four national championship-winning drum and bugle corps will invade Memorial Stadium for the Cornhusker Summer Music Games and official competition of Drum Corps International (DCI).
Two of the groups, the Cadets and the Cavaliers, won world championships in the past three years, and the other two, the Crossmen and the Blue Stars, also rank among the top in the nation.
“We’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but we’ve never been able to work out the scheduling,” said Rose Johnson, assistant with the UNL Marching Band. Johnson has coordinated much of the event along with John Richmond, director of the UNL School of Music.
“He’s a real fan of DCI,” Johnson said. “He really got behind the project and moved it forward.”
At the competition, each corps will have roughly 14 minutes to perform for the crowd and the judges. The performances come complete with brass, percussion and color guard lines.
“It’s not exactly a halftime show, but it’s like that,” Johnson said.
After the initial performances, the groups will all perform a second time, this time showcasing more of their musical talents.
Only the west side of Memorial Stadium will be open for the show, meaning about 14,000 seats will be available.
But organizers expect seats to go fast, especially with such a supportive local base for the Cornhusker Marching Band.
Johnson, however, said she thinks it’s a great event for both the trained and the casual music lover.
“It’s hard to verbally describe a drum corps show,” Johnson said. “They do things that don’t seem quite possible.”
Of course, that comes from weeks and weeks of practice. You don’t walk backward at 200 beats per minute and play a bugle without missing a note without the rigorous training the corps require.
But Cornhusker Marching Band Director Tony Falcone, who also played in a DCI corps, said there’s something about performing and being in the group that keeps its members going.
“It’s the hardest you’ll ever work in your life,” he said. “But it’s an amazing experience.”
Reach Joel Gehringer at 473-7254 or jgehringer@journalstar.com.
If you go
What: The Cornhusker Summer Music Games
Where: Memorial Stadium
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Admission: $17, $22 and $27. Tickets are available at the Lied Center box office at 472-4747 or at the stadium doors.