Vortex Indoor Winds: The Road to Dayton
By Trudy Horsting The Beginnings Vortex Indoor Winds (2019) With WGI Winds in a constant state of growth, the arrival of an independent winds group to the state of New York was inevitable. Championing the inevitable, Keller Shelton, Nieves Villasenor and Dan English introduced Vortex Indoor Winds to the local-circuit scene in 2019. On the […]
Pushed Beyond Expectations
By Kathryn Hardison When Modulation Z was reclassified to Percussion Independent Open near the end of the 2018 season, everyone was shocked. The members and staff were more than a little surprised by the call for the ensemble — which was made entirely of high school students — to compete among many college-aged performers. But […]
Diamante: If It’s Meant to Be
By Jenny Lyons A thread—red, thin and ephemeral, yet constant, steadfast, and unbreakable—ties you to your soulmate. This cord, beautiful in its constancy, may tangle, be pulled violently one way and then another, or stretch to its very limits; but absolutely nothing in this world can break it. This blazing red thread eventually leads you […]
The Little Guard That Could
By Michael Boo Southeast Visual Ensemble is a relatively small Independent Class A color guard from a rural area just south of Jacksonville, Alabama, an area sporting few scholastic color guard programs. Some members typically drive over 100 miles one-way to get to weekend rehearsals. Through grit and determination, the guard has been able to […]
Rebirth and Renewal: Aftermath Percussion
By Caroline Meister Competition colors all activities. The stark pressures of competition and a daunting drive to win can bury the heart of any activity and detract from the raw passion and drive that brought participants to it in the first place. The indoor marching arts are no exception to this phenomenon. When Aftermath announced […]
Like Mother, Like Daughter
By Michael Reed When Suzie Cambron was a clarinetist in the W.A. Berry High School in Hoover, Alabama in the early 1980s, little did she know years later her path would cross again with that of Band Director Steve Simpson, and she would never have imagined one day he would become a valuable influence for […]
WGI and IMG Announce 2020 Event
WGI Sport of the Arts, the world’s leader in producing indoor marching arts events for color guard, percussion ensembles and winds groups, announced today the next step in a continuing strategic partnership with Indoor Music Games (IMG). Both organizations are pleased to announce the return of WGI United Kingdom on Sunday, March 22. The venue […]
A True Underdog Story: Azle High School Winds
By Caroline Meister Azle High School’s motto is: “achieving higher standards.” In their rookie 2018 season, Azle High School Winds won the Scholastic Open class with a score of 94.88, a solid three points ahead of runner-up Mill Creek High School. Needless to say, the group upholds the motto. Azle High School Winds originated in […]
Pride Props: “Another Door Opens”
By Jenny Lyons What is a door? What does it represent? It can embody the door to our future or the portal to the past; it is a symbol of opportunities given, opportunities missed, and opportunities yet to come; it is a representation of home, a safeguard from the outside world; it is the representation […]
Bluecoats Indoor Brings Sonic Dimension to Performances
Formed in 1966, the Canton, Ohio American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps partnered with the Police Boys Club to start up a new unit. The name “Bluecoats” was born in tribute to the police department’s retired officers as a nod to the designation as a program of the Police Boys Club. Since those humble beginnings, […]
WGIcon 2019 Recap
WGIcon will return in 2021! On Friday, September 6, and Saturday, September 7, 2019, WGI launched the first-ever WGIcon in New Orleans! WGIcon is an educational event for all instructors, designers, technicians, and administrators of Percussion, Winds, and Color Guard groups around the globe. Featuring multiple motivational speakers and a Cirque Du Soleil® workshop, we heard […]
WGI Announces Inaugural Costa Rica Event
WGI Sport of the Arts, the world’s leader in producing indoor marching arts events for color guard, percussion ensembles, and winds groups, today announced the first-ever WGI event in Central America. WGI Costa Rica will take place on Sunday, September 30, at the Olympic Village Desamparados in San Jose, Costa Rica in cooperation with Marching […]
Visual Performers in Percussion Ensembles: Etiwanda HS
By Trudy Horsting Are you a percussion director who has been considering using visual performers in your next program? In this follow-up to the visual performers feature with Evidence from William Carey University, Director of Etiwanda HS Percussion (SW) Bryan Nungaray shares with us his perspective on how these individuals can be incorporated in a […]
Decade of competition leads to OC Indoor revival
By Kathryn Hardison They say change is a good thing, and that may be true, but it doesn’t come without its challenges. OC Indoor faced hardships this year that pushed the performers to work harder than they ever had before. For this Portland, Oregon-based group, change came just in time for its 10th anniversary of […]
Visual Performers in Winds Ensembles: Evidence from William Carey University
By Trudy Horsting Are you a winds director who has been considering using visual performers in your next program? Director of Evidence from William Carey University (WIA), Jeremy Morgan, spoke with us to help shed some insight on the process. He has had extreme success utilizing visual performers, presenting a spectacular production in 2019. Here, […]
The Standard Definition: Marching Arts
By Caroline Meister According to dicitionary.com, an athlete is a person trained or gifted in exercises involving physical agility and an artist is someone who produces works in any of the arts. When I searched marching arts in the search bar, nothing appeared. There’s no standard definition for the marching arts. That led me to […]
WGI in Latin America
By Jenny Lyons On May 11, 2019, one month after the final scraps of glittering confetti had been swept up from the UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio, a new chapter of WGI history was being written 3,504 miles away in the BN Arena in San Jose, Costa Rica. Outside, the balmy 85 degree heat hung […]
Recap of 2018 World Championships
We had an awesome 2018 WGI World Championships! With a record number of competing units, it was an exciting couple of weeks in Dayton. Take a look at the Finals recaps below to get a peek at what you missed. Color Guard World Championships Finals Scholastic A Independent A Scholastic Open Independent Open Scholastic World […]
Becoming “PHRĒ”
By Joselyne Grace A traditional percussion ensemble uses drum harnesses to move around the floor with their equipment. However, it can be quite demanding and restraining to carry a heavy drum with you while you perform. Then came Dark Sky Percussion’s 2019 program: “PHRĒ.” what is “PHRĒ”? “PHRĒ” takes the audience on the journey of […]
Moving with Mama Mia
By Michael Reed On the same floor where guards performed and confetti cannons shot off after the World Class Finale hours before, approximately 500 eager students got up to attend a Master Class with world-renowned choreographer Mia Michaels. After three days of performances and a late night, it would be easy to excuse the young […]