The gymnasium of Rolling Meadows High School became a makeshift dormitory recently.
Sleeping bags were laid in rows on the shiny, hardwood floor. There were open suitcases, clothes spilling from them, and a field of colorful bath towels hung to dry on bleacher seats.
It was a sure sign that the Cavaliers, a world-class drum and bugle corps based in Rosemont, was home for a brief visit.
The 128-member all-male group arrived at the school at 1:30 a.m. It was the 18th day of a 21-day tour during which the corps had entertained in towns such as Rockford; Oshkosh, Wis.; and Columbus, Ohio.
With just a few hours of sleep, the corps was up again and on the high school`s football field to practice for its next performance in Des Plaines that night.
While the troops tuned up, Julie Hoffmann of Drum Corps International
(DCI) was working at her desk in a brick office building just off Roosevelt Road in Lombard.
Tacked to the wall beside her was a large map of the United States. With red, blue and green dots scattered strategically across it, the map looked like one a general might use to plan a military invasion.
Indeed, Hoffmann is planning an invasion not of armies but of drum corps. She is public relations director of DCI.
The non-profit organization, which marks its 20th anniversary this year, is the booking agent and vigorous promoter for the top 25 drum and bugle corps in the world, including the Vanguard from Santa Clara, Calif., and the Star of Indiana from Bloomington, Ind. Also among the 25 are the Cavaliers from Rosemont and the Phantom Regiment, which hails from Rockford.
The top 25 corps are selected in an annual competition sponsored by DCI. The event is known as the Summer Music Games World Championships, and this year it will be held Aug. 10-15 in Madison, Wis.
”The red dots show where all the corps are located and the blue dots show the sanctioned shows. The green dots represent sponsored shows,”
explained Hoffmann.
A sponsored show is produced entirely by DCI; at a sanctioned show, DCI provides the judges and corps. There are 46 sanctioned shows and seven sponsored shows during the June-to-August season.
Most people think of a marching band when they hear of drum and bugle corps, yet the two groups are different. A drum and bugle corps is much more than just the half-time entertainment at a football game.
Instead, they perform their own shows featuring vibrant color, music and movement. Often, they compete against other corps. They play only silver bugles and assorted percussion instruments, and instead of a baton twirler, they have a color guard that spins huge, brightly colored flags and/or decorative rifles or sabers.
Their musical repertoire often goes beyond the marches of John Phillip Sousa to include Duke Ellington or Bela Bartok. The music is specifically arranged to fit precise 11 1/2-minute programs.
The Cavaliers` schedule certainly sounds grueling, but it would probably be even more so without the assistance of DCI. It is Hoffmann`s job to plan itineraries for the world`s top 25 corps, enabling them to compete and entertain across the country during their eight-week season. All travel is done by bus.
Most corps hold tryouts in November, then practice one weekend a month until May. During the first part of the summer, the corps compete regionally. DCI has working agreements with four regional associations, which plan local itineraries such as the one during which the Cavaliers appeared in Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin. During the second half of the summer, the corps go national.
Hoffmann works with show promoters in cities across the country to plan entertaining productions, which have a mix of corps with different musical styles and presentations. Hoffmann also arranges schedules so that corps don`t waste time and money traveling illogical distances.
Describing DCI, Jeff Fiedler, director of the Cavaliers, said: ”DCI is our clearinghouse. They are our booking agent. They find sponsors for our shows and help design our tours so we`re not in Ohio one night and California the next.”
Transporting a drum corps is expensive. The Cavaliers travel in four buses and have two tractor-trailer trucks. One is converted into a chuck wagon to allow feeding of the troops, and the other carries equipment. Fiedler estimates that the Cavaliers` per season expenses run upward of $500,000.
Thus drum corps often rely heavily on local communities for funding. Groups such as the Cavaliers need to spend part of their summer performing at community or regional events so they can build a strong identity in their hometowns.
”Before DCI came into being, corps were ending up being on the road all of the time,” said Hoffmann. ”They were traveling all over and not developing their home bases.”
To build such ties, the Cavaliers gave paid performances on Independence Day at four parades hosted by local communities in the northwest suburbs.
Explaining this rush of activity, Fiedler said, ”We are trying to survive. It is very much of a survivorship activity. Without the Village of Rosemont, we wouldn`t be around.”
Rosemont gives the Cavaliers about $100,000 a season, as well as providing a building that is used for offices and equipment storage, according to Don Warren, president of the Cavaliers.
To add to their coffers, drum corps hold fundraisers and hawk items such as T-shirts and audio tapes. Members of the corps also pay up to $600 a season to participate, which basically covers their food costs, said Fiedler.
DCI pays the corps performance fees, about $1,700 to $3,000 a show, depending on their world ranking. This year, DCI`s budget was $4 million. The organization`s revenues are generated by ticket sales, corporate sponsors, and sales of T-shirts, audio cassetes, and compact discs. ”They (the corps) are guaranteed by DCI that they will have at least three nights of performances a week and one night off,” said Hoffmann.
The climax of the drum corps season is the Summer Music Games World Championships, organized by DCI. Though virtually all of the corps that compete are from the U.S., there frequently are foreign teams. This year, a corps from Japan will be entered.
The games will be held this year at Camp Randall Field in Madison, Wis., Aug. 10-15. A show highlighting the top six of the 70 competing corps will be broadcast live Aug. 16 at 2 p.m. on WTTW-TV, Ch. 11. The program costs DCI $250,000 to produce.
There are about 250 corps nationwide, some of which do not compete in shows. Life is more difficult for those that do compete but are not DCI members, according to Hoffmann. ”It`s a lot more work for a non-member corps to tour. They have to schedule their own shows and negotiate their own fees.” DCI, the only organization of its type in the country, has come a long way since it was started out of the Villa Park home of its first and only executive director, Don Pesceone.
He was a natural choice to head the fledgling organization, which has grown to a staff of 12 paid employees.
”I`ve been in this since I was a kid,” said the 50-year-old Pesceone.
”I marched, I taught, I judged and I managed corps.”
Pesceone grew up in Chicago when drum and bugle corps were geared to inner-city youths.
”It was an urban activity that the boys` clubs and veterans`
organizations started to keep kids off the streets,” he recalled. ”But many of these organizations ceased to exist for lack of finances.”
Today, Pesceone said, drum corps, which often are based in suburban areas, ”are less involved in keeping kids off the streets” and ”more into teaching them how to communicate music to an audience.”
He noted that drum corps members may go on to become professional musicians, ”but, even if they don`t, they will have that moment when they were able to talk to an audience in music and in dance. It`s unique, something that they could never have any other way.”
Audience appreciation of the extravaganza-like entertainment offered by drum and bugle corps is growing. Audiences at events sponsored by DCI have grown from 268,073 in 1983 to 500,598 in 1991. An audience of 90,000 is expected at the Summer Music Games World Championships.
Part of the strong growth in audience numbers can be attributed to DCI`s efforts. Radio and television advertising spots and full-length programs like the one that will air on Channel 11 are produced by DCI.
”During that show`s life on air, between 9 million and 15 million people will see it,” predicted Pesceone.
DCI also selects two groups of drum and bugle corps members who form all star groups that march in Macy`s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York and at the Fiesta Bowl Parade in Phoenix on New Year`s Day.
”Normally we don`t like to present our activity as a parade activity, but it is an event (the Macy`s parade) that showcases our product,” said Pesceone.
Summarizing DCI`s goals, he said: ”It`s to produce high-quality shows and to raise funds for our corps. We want to make the general public aware of this activity, which is such a worthwhile endeavor for young people. If someone attends a show or even contributes to a corps, then that will keep this activity alive.”
The atmosphere in DCI offices over the last several weeks ”has been like the night of a party. It`s hectic. We`re executing and putting out fires,”
said Pesceone.
During the off-season, there is still much work to be done.
”We`re setting up a concept of the next season, budgeting and setting up advertising and promotions,” Pesceone explained.
Drum and bugle corps involvement has been very much a family activity for Pesceone. Until recently, his wife, Mary, worked at DCI and his daughter Cheryl still does. His other daughter, Jill, and son, Donald Jr., have performed in corps.
Before DCI`s formation, Pesceone said, ”there wasn`t any real promotional activity. It was a lot of volunteering by moms and dads but not a general public kind of thing.”
Plenty of moms and dads are still helping out.
Take, for instance, Jerry Wille of Schaumburg. His son was in the Cavaliers last year but is not participating this season. Still, the elder Wille returned to spend his summer vacation driving one of the corps` buses.
”I`m just tired, not retired,” Wille said with a laugh. He works for Hines Lumber Co.
Standing among a group of other parents, he added, ”It`s fun being with the guys (of the corps). They`re a good group.”
The highly competitive world of drum corps is often compared to a team sport. ”With 128 people on a field, it`s the biggest team sport in the world,” said Pesceone. The rigorous musical and physical training, as well as the experience of being away from home, builds character in young people, according to enthusiasts.
Cavalier Brian Souders, 20, of Arlington Heights, described the athleticism needed to perform. ”The drill we do is the equivalent of jogging for 10 minutes,” Souder said. ”But your body has to be controlled and you have to play an instrument.”
Kevin Laskowski, 21, of Lisle plays the soprano trumpet for the Cavaliers. Wearing a bright red bandanna and cut-off shorts at practice, he looks like any young person taking it easy for the summer.
Looks deceive, however. Laskowski calls being part of a drum corps challenging. ”You have to be really self-motivated and do your individual best,” Laskowski said. ”No one can do it for you. It`s all up to you.”
Warren Rickert, 16, of Hanover Park is the youngest member of the Cavaliers, which accepts males from 14-21. It is the first time that Rickert, also a student at Glenbard North High School, has been away from home. ”You have to do everything on your own, like your own laundry,” he said.
Corps members also have other off-the-field jobs assigned to them, such as loading luggage and equipment into the buses and setting up scaffolding.
Performing with the Cavaliers is a lot harder than being in his high school`s marching band, added Rickert, who is a member of the color guard.
”We throw flags, rifles or sabers. In high school, we never let go of the flags, but here we`re throwing them all over the place.”
The increased theatricality of the shows put on by drum and bugle corps has been noted by Pesceone.
”In the past 15 or 20 years, it has evolved into a show business-type, professional level of entertainment,” he said. ”It`s always been
competitive, but now it`s more musical and theatrical.”
Pesceone noted that the competitiveness of the activity has fueled creative instrumentation.
”If they (a corps) are looking for a particular sound, then they`ll monkey around with it until they find it,” he said.
When the Cavaliers have needed a special sound, they have gone so far as to use a fire extinguisher with its bottom removed and a brake drum taken from a truck.
”The brake drum has a neat sound, really,” Fiedler laughed.
”Actually, our music can get really loud. A normal instrument can`t break through the sound, so we looked for other alternatives,” said Dave Dombeck, a percussion instructor for the Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers, who finished in second place at last year`s Summer Music Games World Championships, are hoping to win the mantle of World`s Best Drum and Bugle Corps this year. And they have a good shot at it.
With great music, brilliant color and intense competition, the music games sound as if they could eclipse the drama of those other summer games in Barcelona.
And to use a sports metaphor once again, Pesceone said, ”For drum and bugle corps, this is the major leagues.”
