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Jordan Murray from The Company will fulfill his lifelong dream at the age of 16. He has left for Columbus - Ohio to take up a vibraphone spot in the frontline of two-time WGI Independent World Percussion Champions, Rhythm X.

"We are incredibly proud of Jordan as he jets off to do his first American season", said The Company in a press release. "Many of our members have had the pleasure of knowing and teaching him from the age of 9. However, teaching him didn't last very long. He soon showed his incredible natural talent and thirst for excellence."

Jordan is the first ever UK percussionist to play within a WGI ensemble. "This is an amazing feat for him as we see Rhythm X as one of the foremost percussion innovators in the world. This will be invaluable for our own frontline when he returns and brings back a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with everyone at The Company."

When members miss rehearsals because they have their end of school exams looming, Jordan will be missing 3 months of regular schooling in his final year. Bradford Grammar, Jordan's high school, has been very supportive of his adventure by providing assignments and work for him to complete whilst he is living with another young member's family in the United States.

As in previous years, a number of drum corps fans who ordered the DCE Championships DVD complimented the quality of the 3-camera recording this year. One of the responses was that the DVDs DCE has produced of the 2012 Championships are "the best ones yet".

Every year, professionals and volunteers (some are both) put their hearts and souls into the DVD recording of the European drum corps highlight of the year. The quality has really improved since the start of the DVD recordings ten years ago. This is also noted by the fans who order the DVDs.

As ever, DCE has received some great comments about the professional quality of the recordings. "The best yet", "I got goosebumps again" and "It's like being back in the stadium" were some of the comments we received. Obviously DCE is pleased that the DVD has once again been well-received.

Want to experience the quality of the recording yourself? Order the DVDs with all the finalists from the webshop.

'Sounds of New York' is the title of Kadoudal Drum & Bugle Corps' first Premier Class show. The programme will revisit some famous standards about New York such as 'New York New York' by Frank Sinatra and 'Times Square' by Leonard Bernstein.

The corps, newly integrating some adults among its lines and competing in Premier Class for the first time, will also perform it's own version of the master piece 'New York' by Alicia Keys. The final piece will be composed of several current songs that the audience will discover during the French national contest hosted by Marching Music France on 17th August and during the DCE European Championships on the 28th of September.

The show is designed and composed by the same team as in previous years: Nick Merson (The Cadets) is the brass arranger and drill designer of Kadoudal. Ian Wudyka (The Cadets) will write the drumline and pit arrangements. Visual effects and the color guard section are managed by Jenna Lambert (Phantom Regiment) and Nathalie Pellay, with help from international instructors such as Missy Trulock (Phantom Regiment). The hornline and drumline are managed by a European staff during monthly camps and by DCI instructors during master classes. In February, Corey Denham (Spirit of Atlanta) will instruct the Kadoudal drumline and pit.

"This year will be really exciting for Kadoudal" says Yvan Boscher, chairman of Kadoudal Drum & Bugle Corps. "We are taking a new step in 2013, integrating experienced adults in our lines so that they lead our young members to an upper level after their three years in the European circuit and after their great performance last year that allowed them to rank the 2nd place in the Junior Class."

Yohann Boscher, Kadoudal's Corps Director, adds: "We hope that our commitment to this activity will atttract more musicians to Kadoudal for the 2014 season. For now, Kadoudal members work hard and with enthousiam on their new and stirring programme."

Shayne O'Brien will be representing Ireland in DCI this year as a member of The Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps. Shayne, from Clonmel - Ireland, is a member of Banna Chluain Meala, of which the 11-time Irish champions Clonmel Bluehawks are the marching division.

Shayne, who plays trumpet with the Bluehawks, will be part of the brass line for The Cadets 2013 production 'Both Sides Now'. He has secured a second trumpet spot. He auditioned initially by video, and then attended Cadets December camp. Shayne will have one more winter camp in April and then spring training starts on 15th May. The Cadets show for 2013 explores the music of 20th Century American Composer Samuel Barber, celebrated composer for orchestra, opera and voice, his most famous work being his 1936 composition 'Adagio for Strings'.

"It doesn't even feel real, I watched these guys all my life looking up to them thinking I would never be one of them and now here I am standing beside these people and getting fitted for my uniform, it feels so surreal", Shayne said. "It's the best feeling in the world, and I want to thank everyone that supported me with this." Shayne is the first Irish person to march DCI since many years.

Shayne has travelled to the UK to march with Kidsgrove Scouts in the past two years. The Irish Marching Band Association is proud of Shayne's achievement. "With both Irish and UK National championship medals under his belt, the IMBA wish Shayne every success stateside", Brendan Hoye of the IMBA said.

The online team of Drum Corps Europe has expanded. Mark Gjaltema will be reporting for DCE on German drum corps affairs. This will be done in a multimedia way.

"I think it's important that the word Europe really means Europe," says Mark. "I see a lot of information coming from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, but Germany appears to be missing sometimes", Mark says. "This is why I would like to work within Drum Corps Europe." Apart from written reports, he also intends to publish video reports and interviews.

Mark has a rich history in the music world. He started as a drummer in a mallet corps and eventually joined Showband Marum in 1990 to make his first step in the drum corps circuit. After many years, Mark chose to make his dream come true and went to Beatrix in Hilversum in 2001, where he started playing contra bass. After a short break, Mark came back to Beatrix in 2008, and participated in the DCI tour.

In 2011, Mark left Beatrix and slowed down a little. This slower lifestyle soon ended when Mark was asked through Malte Steiner (Showband Rastede) to help the show band with Visual. Mark is now a staff member at Showband Rastede for the second season. Last season as Visual staff member and second drum major and this season as caption head Visual: "We're going to make it into another super season this year, keep an eye on us!"

Because Mark has found his girlfriend in the show band, he is quite active in Germany and he is happy to take on the new task. "We are obviously very pleased with that," responds DCE editor Marco Janssen. "With DCE, we want to be a central point of information in Europe, and report on news from as many countries as possible. Drum corps is once again alive in Germany, and we are happy to devote attention to that. We therefore warmly welcome Mark to the team and wish him every success."

Drum Corps Associates has published the list of dates and locations for the upcoming summer season. The schedule includes 21 contests. The schedule is still subject to change.

Wildwood in New Jersey will once again be the starting point for the series of contests of the drum corps organisation for all ages. That first contest will take place on the 15th of June. Other well-known DCA places such as Bridgeport, Scranton and Reading are also part of the season again.

This will be the last year that the DCA World Championships are held in Annapolis. Last month, DCA announced that the organisation will hold its Championships back in Rochester in 2014. The full contest list can be found here. The number of participating corps is yet unknown.

The Belgian Tijl van der Meulen will march with the American Matrix this winter. He will be keeping us up to date of his experiences across the ocean on the website of Indoor Percussion Europe.

After Glassmen Drum & Bugle Corps last summer, Van der Meulen is now back in the United States for a new musical adventure, this time with Matrix Indoor Drumline. Van der Meulen, a member of DrumSpirit, will be reinforcing the front ensemble this season.

The Belgian is keeping a blog for Indoor Percussion Europe. He has now been in the United States for one month and has published two episodes of his blog. The contributions (in English) can be found at www.indoorpercussioneurope.org.

Juliana Drum & Bugle Corps will travel to Italy again in July. The Dutch corps will give various performances in the space of a week in Cogollo del Cengio and Verdello, home of Millennium.

Juliana will travel south on Thursday the 4th of July and will be playing at the IMSB Summer Festival in Monza and Lecco on Saturday the 6th of July. Besides performances, trips to Milan and Venice are also on the programme. On Thursday 11th July, the DCE finalist will travel back in order to participate in the World Music Contest in Kerkrade on Saturday 13th July.

The trip to Italy will replace the DCI tour in the USA. Recently, Juliana announced that the tour was cancelled due to financial uncertainties.