11 drum corps to put on show at competition

Tag : High Quality Bearing

Eleven elite drum corps will perform this evening at Vista HighSchool's “Corps at the Crest,” a competition thatshowcases and blends music, dance and marching into art.
The performance and competition is part of the Drum CorpsInternational's Summer Tour. The group calls itself “marchingmusic's major league.” Last year's world championship drew50,000 spectators to the Rose Bowl.
Drum corps, also known as drum and bugle corps, is a marching bandthat employs only brass instruments, percussion and dancers withflags – also known as a pageantry corps or color guard. Thesethree elements are historically associated with militarystandard-bearing, which is why each band calls itself a“corps.”
The corps competing today will include the Santa Clara Vanguard,which finished fifth at the world championships last year; theRockford, Ill., Phantom Regiment, which finished fourth; and theBlue Devils from Concord in the Bay Area, the 2007 world champions.
The show starts at 5:45 p.m. with Incognito, a first-year corpsfrom Norwalk near Los Angeles. The event is expected to sell out,so those seeking tickets are encouraged to arrive early. Ticketsare $20 for general admission and $25 for preferred seating,preferred parking and a program.
“These are the very best brass, percussion and guardperformers in high school and college,” said Stuart Pompel,the director of the Diamond Bar-based Pacific Crest, thecompetition's hosting corps.
Pompel said he chose to work with Vista High School because of thehigh quality of its annual high school marching band tournament,the Vista Invitational Field Tournament.
All proceeds from concessions will benefit the Vista High SchoolRegimental Band and Pageantry Corps.
The next event on the Drum Corps International Summer Tour will betomorrow at the Rose Bowl. Five ensembles will compete comparedwith the 11 in Vista.
The other corps competing this evening will be The Academy fromTempe, Ariz.; Impulse from Buena Park; the Hawthorne Gold; the LongBeach Mystikal; the Pasadena Velvet Knights; and Yamato, the corpsfrom Riverside and Kyoto, Japan. John Earnest is a Union-Tribune intern.