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Drum and Bugle Corps spends week in Washington
WASHINGTON — Those listening closely in Washington may have heard a distant metronome and occasional drum beats or horn blasts this week, as a Dubuque-based youth organization called the Colt Cadets have set up at the high school.
Program Coordinator Jake Esterberg said the drum and bugle corps. competed around the Midwest, and needed unfamiliar places to practice.
“We’ll travel around, we’ll stay at different schools,” he said. “Then we get in the habit of packing up and moving … we move around quite a bit with our performances, so rehearsing in different places is good for us.”
Those practices are intense, taking up 12 hours of every day outdoors.
“They’re running around, and we feed them four meals, about 5,000 calories a day,” Esterberg said. “But it’s a lot of fun, these kids really enjoy it. They’re really hard working kids, they’re really dedicated to their thing.”
Most of that time is spent drilling movements and marching formations, with ensemble, full-music rehearsals happening around 7 p.m. toward the day’s end.
The group has stayed on air mattresses in the Washington High School gym, and spent its all-day practices around the campus grounds.
Esterberg said they were enjoying their stay in Washington, with no complaints yet from neighbors and a generally friendly attitude from community members.
“People have come to watch our rehearsals in the evenings,” he said. “They’ve pulled up cars and pulled out lawn chairs, so that’s been kind of fun.”
Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com
A drum and bugle corps. from a Dubuque-based youth organization called the Colt Cadets spent this week in Washington, practicing on the field of and sleeping inside Washington High School. (Kalen McCain/The Union)
Organizers said Colt Cadet musicians spent around 12 hours of the day practicing outside, much of that time spent drilling routines and marching formations, on top of the music itself. (Kalen McCain/The Union)
The Colt Cadets gather at the end of a day for a full-group rehearsal with every member at once. (Photo submitted)
Percussionists with less mobile instruments practiced away from the marching members of the corps, in the high school parking lot. (Kalen McCain/The Union)
The Colt Cadets drum and bugle corps lines up at the end of one march, holding positions as administrators check their spacing and lines. (Kalen McCain/The Union)
Buglers drill their movements on Washington High School's grounds. Organizers said the Dubuque-based group practiced at high schools around Iowa to get members used to different surroundings. (Kalen McCain/The Union)
