Larry Kerchner is one of four people who were recently elected by the Drum Corps International Hall of Fame Committee for induction into the DCI Hall of Fame for 2007.
Kerchner started his drum corps days in the early 1960s as a brass player with the Blue Rock Drum and Bugle Corps of Delaware. While in the corps, he played soprano, French horn, mellophone and contra, and then started arranging music for the corps.
A graduate of the Berklee College of Music and a student of the New England Conservatory of Music and Boston Conservatory of Music, Kerchner has written music for or taught more than 130 drum corps, perhaps most remembered in the junior corps world for his work with Troopers, Bridgemen, Muchachos, Blue Rock, Sky Ryders, Spirit and the early days of Star of Indiana.
For many years, it was practically impossible to attend a drum corps show and not hear a Larry Kerchner arrangement on the field.
He has more than 300 published compositions and arrangements to his credit and has been nominated for a Grammy Award.
"Absolutely no one else can create his signature sound, though many of us have 'borrowed' liberally from him over the years," said Frank Dorritie, a Grammy Award-winning producer.
Kerchner also has written for a variety of stage performers, was an Individual Artist Fellowship recipient and a featured performer in numerous ASCAP Songwriters' Showcases.
Former Bridgemen drum major James Jordan remembers learning under Kerchner's tutelage.
"Larry's music has always embodied the true spirit of the original compositions and the spirit of our corps," Jordan said. "But, Larry, being the genius that he truly is, also has taken the music to a totally new and uncharted level of communication with both the corps and the audience."
Drum Corps International Hall of Fame judge J. Clarke Williams worked with Kerchner, recalling, "Listening as he would visualize the connection his music would have with the audience were moments that allowed all of us on the design team to focus—with a sense of unity—on the creative process." DCI Hall of Fame member Dennis DeLucia refers to Kerchner as one of the "brass arrangers who is responsible for drum corps' emergence in the 1970s and 1980s as an American art form that matured and flourished under the DCI banner, and became an acceptable and positive influence on bands and music education programs in the United States [and elsewhere]." No stranger to receiving honors, Kerchner was inducted into the Massachusetts Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 2000, the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 2001 and the New Jersey Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 2006.
 Larry Kerchner |
Drum Corps International Hall of Fame judge J. Clarke Williams worked with Kerchner, recalling, "Listening as he would visualize the connection his music would have with the audience were moments that allowed all of us on the design team to focus—with a sense of unity—on the creative process." DCI Hall of Fame member Dennis DeLucia refers to Kerchner as one of the "brass arrangers who is responsible for drum corps' emergence in the 1970s and 1980s as an American art form that matured and flourished under the DCI banner, and became an acceptable and positive influence on bands and music education programs in the United States [and elsewhere]." No stranger to receiving honors, Kerchner was inducted into the Massachusetts Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 2000, the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 2001 and the New Jersey Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 2006.