DCI Offseason in Review
"Wooooooah, we're halfway there" - Jon Bon Jovi
It’s late into January, and if you’re like me, living somewhere where you haven’t seen the sun in two weeks and nearly froze to death during Christmas a few weeks ago, the last thing you were probably thinking of before opening this article was the 2023 drum corps season. And I don’t blame you - it feels like it’s been an eternity since the 2022 season ended and even longer until the next season starts. But fear not! This past weekend was the exact midway point of the offseason - 23 weeks since the 2022 season ended and 23 weeks until the 2023 season kicks.
With such a milestone, we thought it would be fun to do a DCI offseason in-review to recap everything noteworthy in the activity in the five months since then. And boy, there is a lot to cover, so find a comfy seat and prepare for this whirlwind of a recap. Let’s dive in…
The Staff Merry-Go-Round Round-Up
For many corps, planning for the next season begins as soon as the previous one ends. Much like professional sports, the beginning of the offseason has turned into a staff carousel of sorts as corps confirm returning designers and caption teams or start their searches for new staff members. And after one of the most competitive seasons in recent memory in which plenty of new milestones and records were set, this offseason was no different.
The Cavaliers perhaps made the most noise in September with nearly a complete turnover in their design and many of their caption instructional teams while assembling an all-star lineup of staff. Most notably, DCI Hall of Famer Richard Saucedo has rejoined the corps as Brass Arranger and Caption Supervisor, a position he infamously held with the corps during their remarkable run of five championships in seven years in the early 2000s. The Cavaliers also added David Starnes as Program Coordinator (a role he previously held at Carolina Crown), Tom Aungst as Percussion Ensemble Specialist (another DCI Hall of Famer who recently finished his second tenure as Percussion Arranger and Caption Head at Cadets), Jeremy Hunt as Visual Designer, and John Leonard as Color Guard Caption Supervisor. Rounding out the instructional team are former members of the Blue Knights brass staff who have taken similar positions with the Cavaliers, notable instructors with years of teaching and performing experience on the color guard and visual team, and many of their last year’s percussion staff members returning for 2023. With such a significant change, expect the Cavaliers to look slightly different from some of their more recent productions while also returning to the signature sound they adopted with Saucedo brass books in the early 2000s.
Carolina Crown also deserves some recognition for bringing on a new percussion team led by the west coast team of Mike Jackson and Kevin Shah. Jackson and Shah both had stints at Bluecoats and Blue Knights throughout the 2010s and now return to the DCI world for the first time in four years. In the WGI world, they work together in leading Broken City Percussion in southern California, who have been medalists at the past five WGI Percussion World Championships in the Independent World class, including their first-ever championship in 2018. For legendary brass arranger Michael Klesch, it will be the first time he will have the opportunity to write with a west coast-based percussion team at Crown. Expect Crown to feature another fantastic hornline that will surely be in the running for another Jim Ott Award but may have a different sound as a full ensemble with a new identity in the percussion section.
Other noteworthy additions at other corps included:
Lee Beddis took over as Percussion Director at Cadets. Lee has decades of experience with many corps, most recently leading the percussion sections at Crown, Madison Scouts, and Crossmen at various points within the past 15 years.
Blue Knights revamped much of their design team, bringing back Jed Weeks as program coordinator, a position he held from 2014-2018, and adding Pyro Lugo-Allen as Artistic Director, Jeremy Seneca as Visual Designer, and Jeff Ausdemore as Percussion Arranger.
Mandarins added Vince Oliver as Brass Arranger. In the drum corps world, Vince is primarily known for his audio work with the Bluecoats. However, in recent years, he has expanded his arranging and consulting for many marching bands and ensembles across the country.
Blue Stars named the team of Tony Nuñez and Matthew Hernandez to lead the percussion caption. Both are known for their work with various west coast ensembles, most notably at RCC Indoor Percussion.
Kevin LeBeouf, formerly the Brass Caption Head at the Cavaliers, left the Green Machine for the same role at Bluecoats.
With so many noteworthy staff additions at many corps, many groups will undoubtedly have refreshed identities and new ideas for the 2023 season. It remains to see how much competitive shakeup it will cause, but we can certainly hope for another exciting season ahead.
2023 Schedule Released (same old, same old)
DCI officially released the 2023 tour schedule in November. However, anyone who follows the activity shouldn’t be surprised that the 2023 schedule will follow the same core structure as the past decade and a half, with the San Antonio Regional being three weeks before World Championships, followed by stops in the southeast and Allentown before the final push to Indianapolis. Similarly, DCI will be returning to some familiar cities for other key shows, such as Muncie (IN), Pasadena (CA), Whitewater (WI), Broken Arrow (OK), Denton (TX), Hattiesburg (MS), and Winston-Salem (NC).
Perhaps the most significant difference this year is the 85 scheduled events, eight fewer than planned in 2022. In addition, most of the shows not carried over to 2023 were smaller, midweek shows mainly in the earlier half of the season. Though most noteworthy is that the tour will make no stops in the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon, Washington, or Idaho, meaning Cascades and Columbians, unfortunately, will not get a home show in their area. Likewise, after starting the season at a Tour Premiere event at Ford Field in Detroit the past few seasons (and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis before that), a domed venue is not scheduled for the kickoff event. Instead, the season is set to start at a to-be-named venue in Western Michigan with the assumption that a scaled-back season kickoff means a live broadcasted event in select movie theaters will likely not be happening this year.
Later in the season, DCI returns to Center Parc Credit Union Stadium in Atlanta (former home to the Atlanta Braves) for a second straight year. Like last year, the corps will be split between Atlanta and Winston-Salem the following night, with only a few scheduled for both shows. This decision means that once again, the Southwestern Regional Championship in San Antonio will be the only opportunity for the vast majority of World Class corps (Jersey Surf being the exception) to perform under the same roof and judging panel before World Championships three weeks later.
That one announcement in December that shocked everyone
Santa Clara Vanguard shocked the drum corps community on December 12th when the organization announced that they would not be fielding a corps for the 2023 season, citing financial concerns and several organizational challenges. The announcement came on the heels of a similar decision made less than three months earlier when the organization announced that Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets would also not be fielding this summer despite being named the 2022 Open Class Champions. For many, it was a wake-up call that even the most prestigious corps are not safe from many of the current-day challenges facing the activity. Even though we are entering a second “normal” season post-pandemic, the news is evident that some corps are still feeling the effects of rising costs and lost revenue from the canceled 2020 season. However, if there’s any consolation to the announcement, the corps is not yet folding, as the decision was made to ensure the corps’ hopeful and triumphant return in 2024.
This summer’s tour will certainly miss Vanguard’s presence and innovative show design enjoyed by many in the activity. The corps has consistently been in DCI’s elite echelon, having been on a run of nine straight top-five finishes, including a championship season in 2018 in which they won their first title this millennium. Vanguard is also the only corps to have been named a finalist every season in DCI’s 50-year history, a historic run that will officially end this season. A corps of this magnitude to go inactive is also incredibly rare in DCI history, as the last corps to be named finalists and go inactive the following season was Star of Indiana in 1993 (who left DCI for entirely different reasons - Google “Brass Theatre” and “Blast!” if you’re unfamiliar with the story).
Unfortunately, Vanguard was not the only organization to announce that it would not participate in the 2023 DCI season. Legends in Open Class and DCI’s only Michigan-based corps announced that they would be inactive after previously fielding a competitive ensemble for 13 straight seasons. Meanwhile, Shadow from Wisconsin and a relative newcomer to Open Class, having only competed since 2016, officially folded their organization after not fielding a corps in either the 2021 or 2022 seasons. The loss of these two corps plus Vanguard Cadets means Open Class will now only feature 19 competitive corps in 2023, with only 12 of those set to appear at Open Class World Championships in Marion, IN.
If there’s any solace to this topic, it’s that two corps are returning to the field this summer after being inactive in 2022. Spirit of Atlanta returns after a year of organizational restructuring, following concerns over membership safety following the 2021 season. Likewise, Cascades from Washington will rejoin the tour for the first time since 2019 after financial and recruiting challenges kept them inactive for the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Finally, Columbians, another Washington-based corps from Tri-Cities, is set to make an appearance at Open Class World Championships for the first time in their corps’ 10-year history, while The Battalion will be returning for their second-ever appearance.
Januals (aka the DCI Annual Meetings)
One of the most significant parts of the DCI off-season is always the Annual Meetings - or more affectionately referred to as the “Januals” due to them typically being held post-holidays in January. This year’s Annual Meetings were held from January 6th-8th in Indianapolis. The weekend event is an opportunity for DCI and corps staff, educators, judges, and other key personnel to gather in person to discuss several varying topics about the activity. Discussion is usually focused on the upcoming season to discuss any logistical changes or challenges that will be new for the next season. It also allows everyone to collaboratively discuss ways to change and enhance the competitive aspect of the drum corps activity.
Januals are also vital because they allow the corps to discuss any proposed rule changes they can submit. This year, six proposals were submitted ahead of the meetings in December, and those were summarized in our article “DCI Rules Changes (Maybe)” by Matthew Carstensen (linked above). Perhaps a bit surprisingly, five of the six proposals never underwent a formal vote by the corps directors. Instead, they were either withdrawn or did not pass a vote following discussion in the instructor’s caucus. These proposals were #1 and #3, which proposed changes in caption titles and responsibilities for judges; proposals #5 and #6 which sought to tweak the usage of electronics and brass amplification in performances; and proposal #4, which would introduce a non-competitive period of 10 days at the beginning of every season in which corps would not receive a publicly announced score.
The one proposal that did pass was submitted by Madison Scouts which passed with amended language. Proposal #2, in its original form, sought to shorten the length of performances by reducing the allowed performance block for each corps to an eight to ten-minute performance within a 15-minute block. This format would closely mirror the performance blocks used by Bands of America, allowing for a six- to eleven-minute performance within a 15-minute block. The proposal instead passed with new language that slightly modified the times less drastically. The 15-minute block was not adopted and will remain at 17 minutes as it is currently, while the maximum performance length will also stay at 13 minutes. The change comes in the minimum performance length, which was shortened to 8 minutes for both World and Open Class; previously, the minimum length was 10 minutes for World Class corps and 8.5 minutes for Open Class Corps. While a relatively minor adjustment, it remains to be seen if any corps will take advantage of the new rule this summer. It could create some interesting design and competitive decisions in which a corps may try to field a short show that is perhaps more refined with less material that needs to be cleaned.
End of an Era
At the end of the Annual Meetings, DCI announced that the upcoming season would be the last led by Dan Acheson as CEO and Executive Director before his planned retirement later this year. Acheson has led “Marching Music’s Major League” since 1995, so the upcoming summer will be an excellent capstone for his remarkable 28-year career with the organization. During that time, he received countless awards and recognition from different organizations, headlined by his induction into the DCI Hall of Fame in 2008.
Before his role with DCI, Acheson served ten years as the corps director of the now-defunct Glassmen Drum and Bugle Corps. He helped the corps climb the competitive ladder and achieve considerable success. Before Acheson took over in 1985, Glassmen had never placed higher than 24th; under his leadership, the corps steadily rose to make their first appearance in semifinals in 1991, followed shortly by their first appearance in finals in 1993.
Throughout Acheson’s 28 years at DCI, he helped lead the way through several challenging periods threatening the long-term sustainability of both DCI and the drum corps activity. Such periods include the organization being on the brink of bankruptcy when he took over in 1995; the post-9/11 world, which caused economic and safety concerns and greatly limited the corps’ ability to travel internationally; the economic recession in 2008 and 2009; the sexual abuse scandal involving the Cadets and former director George Hopkins in 2018; and the COVID-19 pandemic which canceled the 2020 season. Yet, despite these challenges, DCI remains a healthy organization that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022.
Per the article announcing Acheson’s retirement, the DCI Board of Directors is already working on a succession plan that ensures the organization’s next CEO is in place before the start of the 2023 season to allow for overlap and seamless transition in leadership. General Effect Media can confirm via sources that the search has been narrowed down to two candidates who both underwent interviews during the Annual Meetings and already have involvement and leadership positions at other organizations within the drum corps activity. Regardless of who is eventually chosen to take over the organization, they will join with years of experience but with high expectations to fill in some large shoes left behind by Dan Acheson.
Le Fin
Phew. That was a lot. If you made it this far, I’m impressed. And if you kept up with all of the news as the offseason progressed, I’m equally impressed. It’s been a busy offseason for the activity, perhaps a bit more than usual, and that’s even without mentioning audition season and all of the vital work the members and staff are doing to already prepare for the upcoming summer. It still feels like a lifetime away, but the offseason has shown we have much to look forward to this year. So hunker down for a few more weeks, emerge from your hibernation when you’re ready and get ready for an exciting summer!
Marching Arts by the Numbers is a current staff writer and stats guru for General Effect Media. He has been involved in the marching arts activity for nearly two decades in a variety of roles. Marching Arts by the Numbers is his latest project with the vision of being the primary source of statistical information for the marching arts community. You can follow more of his work at @band_scores on Twitter.