Renaissance
December 1-2, 2008
By John "J.C." Caspers
The Racine Kilties launched the 2008 season with a successful open house and a great banquet. The wintry weekend began with new and returning members meeting at Gilmore Middle School at noon on Saturday. After a little time spent getting to know one another, we all moved over to the theater where 2008 corps director and program coordinator Scott Stewart addressed the troops about all things Kiltie. He began by touching on our goal of being an outstanding experience for the members, their families, friends and our fans. He outlined for us how members, staff and support people will work together to enable us to achieve a high level of performance. Scott also explained that the Kilties are structured so that the members can have an avenue for performance while balancing work, family and school. He told us that we should always strive for both excellence and enjoyment, and that the two are not mutually exclusive.
After covering all the details associated with the upcoming season like schedule, financial obligations, conduct policies, etc. Scott talked about a portion of the Kiltie Guidebook that is new for 2008 that addresses the “Kiltie Philosophy.” I found it interesting, enlightening and inspiring, and I’d like to share some of it here because I feel it is the basis for everything as we move forward as a corps. “We believe that the Kilties exist for the benefit of the participants. The program is structured so that it fulfills the desires of those that choose to be an active part of it. To these ends, we will provide a positive environment that promotes character and social development, encourages a deep sense of camaraderie within the group and presents a positive image to all outside the group that come into contact with it. We will adhere to a system that allows for achievement and performance excellence through an exciting, entertaining program design produced in an efficient manner and within the time frame of an all-age corps.
The Kilties are made up of two groups – staff members and performing members. Both groups are of equal importance, depend upon one another, and between them exclusively determine the success of the organization. Success for our purposes is defined as accomplishing the aforementioned goals and establishing a base strong enough to ensure the perpetuity of the organization. Exclusively determine means that within the Kilties family, we have the opportunity to create a world that is free from the dysfunctional standards of much of the activity and the world in general.”
There is much more to the “Kiltie Philosophy” than I can provide in this short review. It is built on trust, honesty, consistency and communication. The essence of our philosophy is nothing radically new or different. It is simply a belief in and observance of guidelines that benefit the entire global community. The more individuals that commit to these unselfish ideals, the healthier the environment is for everyone involved. I have bought in hook line and sinker.
Then we heard about the 2008 production that will be called “Renaissance.” The music for the show is based on melodies of Michael Praetorious, whose life spanned the transition from the High Renaissance to the early baroque. I know what you’re thinking…Michael Praetorious? -> Kilties??? That’s what I was thinking, but after hearing the actual musical passages spliced together into four movements individually described by Scott, loud cheers went up! This music is fresh, exciting, and unlike anything I’ve heard on a football field. Scott’s running narration regarding the visual elements of the show that will complement the musical segments got us all the more excited.
After hearing the announcement of the show, the corps was eager to get down to business, so we put instruments and equipment into the hands of the new members and broke into sectionals. Brass headed to the cafeteria, percussion to the theatre and guard to the gym. Being a brass guy, I was pretty excited about the music that was passed out. Our parade tunes will be Kenny Norman’s classic arrangements of “Auld Lang Syne” and “Scotland the Brave.” Our 2008 repertoire will also include two concert (non-show) pieces, Jerry Kelsey’s great arrangements of “Water is Wide” and “Eli’s Coming.” The second half of the 2008 opener titled “Out of the Darkness” was also passed out. The brass line concentrated on Syne, Scotland and Water is Wide.
Day one of the open house concluded at 4 p.m., which gave us a couple of hours to get ready for our annual banquet at South Hills Country Club. We had a wonderful time celebrating the 2007 Kilties and welcoming many of the new Kiltie family members into the fold. One of the big highlights of the evening for me was the “Moon’s Moments” segment. I don’t know where Moon comes up with this stuff, but the unique awards were great! Special thanks to Sharon Jefferson and her banquet committee for another wonderful event!
Sunday ushered in an improvement in the weather, and we met at Gilmore for 10 a.m. Kiltie breakfast and 11 a.m. rehearsal. The Sunday session included an hour in the gym where our 2008 marching program was introduced. I really liked the clean, classic, straightforward style that was defined for us by visual staff member Andy Brady. It will serve us well. Then it was back to sectionals where the brass line worked “Water is Wide” and “Out of the Darkness.” At 3:30, the corps proper met in the gym where we filmed a commercial for the local cable channel 25. The commercial consists of the brass line playing “Slow Syne” followed by the full corps chanting “Happy Holidays from the Racine Kiltie Drum and Bugle Corps. You’re watching CAR 25”. The commercial is being aired frequently from now till New Years Day.
Then it was show and tell time for the percussion. First, they played through their extensive warm-up material. Then the 2008 street beat was played through twice and was showered with rousing applause from the rest of us. The brass line performed “Water is Wide” and the second half of “Out of the Darkness” which was also greeted with enthusiastic applause.
Our weekend concluded with a mini-State of the Union address from Scott. To paraphrase Scott, here’s where we’re at numbers wise: We will march 50 horns in 2008. We need some help on contra and maybe a baritone or 2. We had 43 in the horn arc on Sunday with a few folks excused mostly due to the bad weekend weather, so we’re pretty close to closing the horn line. The battery is nearly full. We had 12 snares try out for 8 spots, 3 quads, 5 bass and a bunch of cymbals. I counted 7 in the pit on Sunday, so we may still have a spot or 2 there, and we could use another quad. We still have some recruiting to do in the guard. We hope to have a guard of no less than 20 in place by our January camp. In fact, the goal is to have the horn line, percussion section and guard full and closed by our next full corps camp on January 26-27. The plan is to put a corps of 105 on the field which could be expanded to 115 depending on how well our short term recruiting efforts go. The percussion section will be closed at the January 5-6 percussion-only camp.
Scott concluded by telling us that the weekend was a fantastic success and that he was elated with the way the 2008 season has started. I couldn’t agree more!
Til Next Time,
J.C.
