The newly crowned World Champions are heading to Vernon.
The Calgary Round-Up Band, which won the best junior marching band division at the World Association of Marching Show Bands championships in Calgary during the annual Calgary Stampede, will perform at the Okanagan Military Tattoo Saturday and Sunday, July 27 and 28, at Kal Tire Place.
“They also placed very high in the overall championships against much older and more experienced bands,” said Tattoo founder Norm Crerar. “They were rated the top junior band in the championships and they will be performing here in the 2019 Tattoo.”
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The band features about 170 youth in Grades 7, 8 and 9, and the Calgary Round-Up Band also won the drumline battle for its group at the World Championships.
A drumline is a section of percussion instruments usually played as part of a musical marching ensemble, or it can also be a section on their own competing against other marching drumlines.
Such an event will happen at the Tattoo.
The Calgary band will take on the visiting Brentwood Imperial Youth Band from the UK, also part of the Tattoo, and the recent winners of the B.C. High School Drumline Championship, the A.L. Fortune Secondary Band of Enderby, in a challenge during both shows.
“The Fortune kids are a little nervous, but they’re going to be awesome.The drumline challenge is going to be great,” said Crerar.
The Fortune Drumline program was started four years ago by music director Michelle Reed. The program continues to grow each year and now has three separate ensembles running with more than 50 students participating in Drumline.
This year, their most senior ensemble placed first at the B.C. Championships in Concert Class (as defined by the Canadian Drumline Association). The Fortune Drumline has had performance contracts with the Salmon Arm SilverBacks and performs regularly around the community.
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Shows are set for 7 p.m. Saturday, July 27, and 2 p.m. Sunday, July 28. Tickets for the sixth annual Okanagan Military Tattoo are available through ticketseller.ca
More information about the tattoo can be found here.
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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