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Drum and Bugle Corps

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Drum Corps International (DCI) is a nonprofit youth organization serving junior drum and bugle corps around the globe. From modest beginnings in 1972, DCI has developed into a powerful youth activity with artistic and organizational influence on the world's drum and bugle corps, marching bands, and related activities. Celebrating more than three decades of service, DCI has amassed an illustrious history. Thirty-one World Championships in 16 cities have provided entertainment to more than half a million people in stadiums and to millions more through the PBS telecast. Regional, focus, sponsored, and sanctioned shows have brought the drum corps experience to several million more in hundreds of towns and cities throughout North America.

But DCI's crowning achievement is the unparalleled experiences it offers to thousands of youth between the ages of 14 and 22 -- life-enhancing, character-building experiences, including the pure joy of learning and playing music, the exhilaration of athletic achievement, and the thrill of performing before thousands of cheering fans time and again.

In 2005, DCI corps will again travel throughout North America, starting in early June and culminating in August at the World Championships in Foxboro, Mass., from Aug. 9 - 13, 2005.

DCI emerged from a uniquely American activity that had its beginnings after World War I, when veterans formed corps to perform in parades as a way to celebrate patriotism. Many of these units, playing traditional no-valve bugles and rudimentary drums, were attached to the VFW, American Legion, Catholic Youth Organizations, and Police Athletic Leagues. The groups soon developed into legitimate musical units, and in the '60s became more and more competitive. Through the '60s and '70s, corps evolved from quasi-military and urban groups to showbiz and suburban performers. They began to integrate jazz, classical, pop, and Broadway music and dance. Instrumentation evolved to include a wide range of bell-front, rotor, and multivalve brass horns and sophisticated drums and percussive instruments, including keyboards.

Description provided by DCI.ORG

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