Vicki MacFarlane doesn’t remember a time when drum corps wasn’t part of her life.
Long before she wore a uniform, taught a rehearsal or made an administrative decision, she was a kid in Dubuque, Iowa, sitting in the stands at a local Drum Corps International Tour event.
“My grandma took me to the Dubuque show, Music on the March, every year, from what I remember,” she said. “From when I was four years old until high school.”
Now building on a 25-year history with the Colts in a variety of roles, MacFarlane steps into a new position in 2026. As the newest executive director, she is just the fourth leader to helm the Colts Youth Organization in more than six decades.
Her path into the marching music activity wasn’t entirely “conventional.” A clarinetist by training turned baritone player on the football field, MacFarlane “never aged out” of drum corps participation, but she found her way back to the Colts soon after her marching days ended in the mid-1990s.
By 2001, she was on staff with the Colt Cadets. Over the next two and a half decades, MacFarlane’s role within the organization evolved steadily — teacher, program leader, corps director, and now executive director.
That philosophy of steady growth took shape early in her professional life as a band director in rural Iowa. Teaching across multiple grade levels and school districts, she found unexpected joy in working with younger students and building programs from the ground up.
It also reinforced a belief that still anchors her approach today.
Despite the drum corps activity’s evolution — rising costs, global reach, and increased standards — MacFarlane views the work as fundamentally humanistic. It’s a grounded perspective that makes the “visionary” expectations of her new role feel particularly daunting.
“The biggest stressor is having that vision of what the next five years is, beyond just one group,” she admitted.
Under her leadership, the Colts have thrived. In 2022, the corps earned its first DCI World Championship Finals appearance in 15 years — a milestone year that also saw MacFarlane’s peers recognize her with DCI’s Dr. Bernard Baggs Leadership Award. This momentum continued over the following seasons, with the corps reaching its highest-ever placements and scores.
But the transition to executive director represents a different kind of responsibility — one that extends beyond a single ensemble or season to the broader vision of the organization.
“As I transition in the executive director role,” she said, “there’s an expectation that we have a greater presence with our chamber of commerce, with collaboration with other nonprofits, and especially the artistic ones in the Dubuque community.”
Among other performing arts programs, the Colts Youth Organization continues to field both World and Open Class ensembles as part of the DCI Tour even as the activity grows more demanding. Higher standards for travel and member care provide a better experience, but they also create new challenges.
“Now, the level of excellence expected to be a member, the amount of recruiting, the quality of our vehicles — just the quality of each element of what we do, there’s a higher expectation of service,” she said. “While the cost has increased, some of that is from what people want to be provided when they perform and travel with us.”
It’s a responsibility she steps into following a period of consistent financial stability for the organization. But even as she looks ahead, MacFarlane is clear about what won’t change.
“We’re not willing to risk these members’ experience in the drum corps just for a one-year success,” she said. “Some of those choices are tough, and it is a give and take. We don’t need to be best at one thing; we have wanted to get consistently better at a lot of things.”
That long-view perspective extends to her work beyond Dubuque as well. As a member of the Drum Corps International Board of Directors, MacFarlane has gained a broader view of the marching music activity as a whole.
“I often refer to the different ‘hats’ I’m wearing,” she said, “If I’m looking out for Colt Cadets, that might be a different thought than if I have my DCI board hat on where I’m looking out for what’s best for the activity. It really makes me consider things from far more perspectives than I do when I’m only wearing a drum corps hat.”
Through it all, her enthusiasm for the activity remains unmistakable.
After 25 years, she still comes back to the same reason she started.
“I just love the people in drum corps,” she said. “Those relationships create win-win scenarios and a vision broader than what we might have had on our own.”
More on the Colts Youth Organization’s appointment of Vicki MacFarlane
