Memorial Day Camp Report

Friday May 22/Saturday May 23

The corps settled down for a long weekend of work at Grace Davis High School in Modesto, CA. While we have number of corps members who will be arriving late over the course of the weekend due to graduation, the corps is moving forward with music, drill equipment work and choreography.

By the way, congratulations to all of our graduates, we are very proud of you!

Our corps members from Japan arrived on Wednesday and will be here for the rest of the summer: Akari Yanada, pit: Mai Adachi, trumpet; and Nanami Ida, bass drum. Welcome! The Mandarins have had members from Japan since 2001, in fact, Akari is returning to the Mandarins after having been a member of the pit in 2007.

In addition, Kallen Asao, a guard member from Hawaii is in camp. The remainder of our quite sizeable Hawaii contingent will be arriving in June.

Saturday morning was spent on the completing the opener drill, and the afternoon reviewing the earlier portions of the drill. We are fortunate as the temperatures are quite moderate, especially compared to the 100 degree weather we had in Sacramento last weekend.

Much of the evening hours were spent in music sectionals as work was completed on Partita, the piece being used for the “Absolute Velocity” portion of the program.

Sunday May 24/Monday May 25

Sunday morning started with a conditioning session lead by Chris DaPrato. Chris is a former Mandarins marching member and also served on the percussion staff. In his present job, Chris currently works with NCAA Div. 1 athletes at Cal Berkeley in their Sports Medicine and Physical Therapy departments.

Over the course of the weekend, the corps completed the drill and staging for the second number, Libertango, which is used to portray “Absolute Passion”. As a result, the corps now has the first 5 minutes of the show on the field.

The evening ended with a music ensemble run of the entire 2009 program Absolute. While much work remains to be done, and the inevitable changes yet to be made, the soundtrack for this year’s show should certainly have widespread crowd appeal.

You can see video of the entire weekend at the corps’ website, mandarins.org And yes, the Mandarins do tweet: http://twitter.com/dcimandarins

Coming Soon

Our next rehearsal will be on May 31 at Florin High School in Sacramento. The day will be spent tightening up the opener drill and sectional time will be devoted to refinements of the music book.

June camp will be June 5 -7 at Oakmont High School in Roseville. We presently have a tuba and guard opening, so if you’re thinking about marching, now is the time to make your move. See our audition page for details: mandarins.org/auditions/detail.html