Carolina Crown Karma

The following account was contributed by Robyn Marshall, a recent graduate of North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, Pa. and an incoming first-year student majoring in music education at the University of Pennsylvania. This is a story of how a friend and I ended becoming members last minute with our dream corps for the soon-to-start season. I'm 18 and from Pittsburgh, Pa. I was a drum corps member last year with another corps and am marching with the Carolina Crown in 2006. When I was first exposed to DCI corps at the Pittsburgh Summer Music Games in 2004, I knew that I wanted to march, but I just didn't know what I could play since I was a clarinet player. I remember seeing girls walking off of the field carrying huge instruments. I didn't know at the time what they were, but I told myself I could see myself doing that. The following week was our band camp and I asked my director if I could switch to brass. I initially wanted to try mellophone, because I've always loved the sound. However, we had very few low brass players, so he handed me a baritone to try. It was love at first B-flat scale. I was thrilled to be learning how to play that instrument. It really hadn't crossed my mind that I would be in a drum corps the following summer. I thought I would need to practice for a year to get good enough. Luckily, after three months of hard practicing and many, many tubs of DCT lip ointment, I went to a drum corps camp after convincing my parents, and I was made a member of the second baritone line. I was so ecstatic, I almost hugged the caption head! That summer was amazing and I will never forget what I learned about myself and about music. However, I didn't feel like I was at "home." I remember seeing Carolina Crown sometime towards the end of tour. By the end of their first movement, I was amazed at what they were doing. Their presence on the field could be felt all over my body. I loved the cream-colored uniforms standing out against the dark green field, the body movements, the drill and the lush dark sound of the horn line. I knew right then that I would one day march with them. I would do anything to make it. After tour, I became a senior in high school. Corps really didn't cross my mind much in September because I was preparing college audition pieces and practicing with my marching band. I only really decided that the "corps bug" would not go away in December when I attended a camp of another corps to try out. I got excellent feedback there, and had I gone back to the following camp, I would have been made a member. But I didn't feel like I was at "home" there either. I contemplated sitting around all summer, possibly learning another instrument, preparing for college and working on music theory. Never did it cross my mind to audition for Carolina Crown. No, I thought it would be too hard and I could never make it. I thought I wasn't yet good enough. After all, I had only been playing a brass instrument for about a year and-a-half. I didn't think I had it in me to do it. Yet, something made me sign up to audition in March when I saw they still hadn't set the baritone line. But again, I chickened out and ended up not attending the camp. I again thought about a summer home. Then one day, Nathan, a friend of mine I knew from another corps, alerted me to a baritone opening with Carolina Crown. At this time, I was going to march with a DCA corps, so I figured this was a win-win situation, whether I made it or not. I sent my information to the brass staff and a few recordings. I waited a day or two and got a response. It was two weeks before move-ins. I was offered a spot in the baritone line at Carolina Crown. I was ecstatic! How could this be happening? It's been a dream of mine, and to think it's coming true so quickly! It was great. I couldn't thank my friend enough. I really didn't know how to thank him. But when I got to spring training, I quickly found a way to do so. I arrived May 27 for spring training as scared as I'd ever been; not knowing anyone and completely new to my surroundings. But they welcomed me as if I had been there since the first camp. That was the moment I knew that this summer will be something I will always treasure. It wasn't until about Sunday or Monday of that week that I learned of a mellophone hole in the corps. My friend Nathan (who told me about the baritone opening) was actually awaiting a response from another corps to offer him an open spot to step into. But that corps ended up picking a vet of the corps over him. I felt horrible, but soon remembered the position I had heard about. I told one of the brass staff that I had the phone number of a friend who had a year's worth of experience who would love to come fill the open position. I had to leave for a few days for my high school graduation, and when I came home they still hadn't made a decision. It took a while to get a response from the staff, but they eventually offered Nathan a position to fill the mellophone spot with Crown. Karma. It was the only word I could think. Karma. I really don't think there was any better way to thank him. This is what drum corps should be about, people helping each other; not just to find out about open positions in corps, but to help each other become better people. Nathan and I thought this was too much of a coincidence to not share with others.