The Story of 2015 - We Have a Lot to Remember and Celebrate

As we get back to our day to day routines away from summer tours and competitions, we take a moment to reflect on the year. We have a lot to be thankful for, many remarkable memories and so much to celebrate.

BDEntertainment continued to grow, expand and bring our activity to more corporate events, special events, and the sporting world. Many past members are still performing today with these unique ensembles. BDE capped off their year with performances at the NBA Finals. The Aftershock, the Golden State Warrior drum line, entertained and celebrated with the Basketball World Champions.

System Blue Education continued to expand their offering by hosting over 15 events in California, Hawaii, Texas, Missouri, Massachusetts, South Africa, and China. System Blue partnered with many great band programs and offered first class educators around the world including Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser and SB Education Director Frank Troyka. Over 5,000 students attended System Blue education events this year. We are super excited about continuing this substantial growth as we expand the marching arts activity around the world.

The beginning of the new year was an exciting one, as RCC Indoor Percussion became an official program of BD Performing Arts. There has been a synergistic relationship between these two groups for many years. Now with the addition of RCC, BDPA has enhanced our organization on many levels. RCC took the gold at WGI finals in 2015 winning their fifth title. With this in mind, we take another opportunity to congratulate Sean Vega, Jim Wunderlich, Gary and Sheila Locke, and all the members of RCC.

In the past we have taken groups overseas to perform in places like South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brazil, South Korea, Guatemala, Mexico, Lithuania, and parts of Europe. This year we embarked on a full seven week European tour with the Blue Devils International Corps. 100 performers traveled to The Netherlands, England, Paris, Italy, and finally to Switzerland for the world famous Basel Tattoo. We collaborated and performed with the world renown Top Secret Drum Line and had the opportunity to share our BD World with new audiences. Thank you to all the staff and members of BDI who shared your talents.

Two years ago we started the Health and Wellness program for BDPA. Drum corps is demanding on our members, and we take their wellbeing seriously. This year, our health and wellness program was featured on the National Acclaimed show The Doctors. It is great to see the DCI activity get this kind of recognition on a mainstream level. Thank you to all of our health and wellness staff for keeping our musical athletes healthy and cared for. We are grateful for you.

The DCI season was action packed to say the least. Blue Devils B defended their 2014 Open Class Championship and ended the season with a score of 80.325 achieving the Silver Medal. Their show Prismatic was a crowd favorite. Congratulations BDB on another successful year.

The Blue Devil C Corps had another amazing season. One of the unique highlights of their year was a young C Corps member who performed with the A Corps at the DCI World Championships. If you had the chance to see Clara this year in Indianapolis, you saw her step out of the storybook in the production Ink. As a C corps member, she helped tie the chapters together in the last few days of the 2015 tour. Clara did a wonderful job representing not only BDC but all of BDPA. She exemplifies our youth in both their investment into the drum corps activity as well as our investment into them. Congratulations BDC on an amazing season. Keep growing. Keep striving. Keep learning. The journey to excellence is a great one.

Last but not least, a congratulations goes out to the A Corps for winning the Drum Corps International World Championships for an unprecedented 17th time. Their show Ink was well received by record audiences all summer long. This corps, with many first year members, overcame a variety of obstacles along the way. It is in the challenges that our character is tested, and our performers passed with flying colors. The 2015 Blue Devils never let up. They gave every ounce of themselves. They believed in the performance, believed in the show, believed in the story, and believed in themselves. It is remarkable to see young artists not only perform for audiences around the country but also commit to each other as they strive for perfection. BDA finished the season with a score of 97.65 to achieve back-to-back World Championships, as well as the amazing accomplishment of six gold medals in the past nine years. Congratulations to every member, staff member, volunteer, parent, sibling, and our entire BD World that supported us along the way. We share this victory with everyone of you. 2015 truly was a storybook ending.

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