It might be hard to believe given the corps’ name, but it’s been 25 years since Hurricanes last performed a show about weather.
The corps’ 2026 production — a show that was originally intended to see the field six years prior — will snap that streak.
With its program, “The Storm,” the Connecticut corps plans to lean directly into the imagery, energy and symbolism tied to the corps’ own identity — while also exploring the more personal storms that shape people through disruption, struggle and change.
“This show is, of course, about the storm, the Hurricanes,” said program coordinator Dan Schack. “But it’s also about the storm that kind of resides within all of us, where change has to come through a disruption of normalcy — sometimes through pain, sometimes through the exposure of the fragility that lurks underneath what seems stable.”
The concept itself dates back to 2020, when Hurricanes was simultaneously introducing a new design team and working to reshape the organization’s culture and identity. That drum corps season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the production was tabled for a few years.
“We had brought on a new design team and a revitalized perspective to the drum corps,” Schack said. “We’ve been spending this time rebuilding the corps, creating a new culture for the contemporary participant who is looking for an experience at the senior corps level, and it felt like the right time to bring this back in.”
In what will be the corps’ first weather-themed program since 2001’s “Storm Warning,” the production is divided into four phases, all inspired by the lifecycle of a hurricane itself — “The Calm,” “The Hurricane,” “The Eye” and “The Clearing.”
The opening movement draws inspiration from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score for “The Social Network.” Rather than beginning with immediate aggression, Schack said the corps wanted the production to open from a more reflective and unsettled emotional space.
“It doesn’t start with the violence and the depth of a storm,” he said. “It starts with a poignant thoughtfulness where things are starting to percolate up.”
From there, the corps transitions into the storm itself — according to Schack, this second section will be the most “drum corps” movement of the show, with aggressive tempos and energetic music. Set to Steven Melillo’s “Stormworks,” the movement will combine powerful ensemble moments with large-scale visual imagery, including staging pieces intended to operate like waves on the ocean.
The emotional peak of the production arrives during Hurricanes’ ballad, titled “The Eye,” which features “Call of Silence” from the anime series “Attack on Titan.” Schack described this movement as the production’s most introspective moment — a temporary calm that allows both the performers and audience to reflect inward before the storm resumes.
“This gives us a down moment,” Schack said. “It gets to the root of the psychological piece of the storm, where you’re introspective, where it feels like things have calmed and you’re able to look within and recognize some of the change that’s occurring through this turbulent period.”
The production will close with “The Clearing,” which revisits the intensity of the storm before ultimately resolving into a renewed emotional state. Throughout the show, Hurricanes also plan to weave in the organization’s longtime corps song, “They Call the Wind Mariah” — performed in eight different competitive seasons by the Connecticut corps, most recently in 2019 — using the piece as a musical motif and as a nod to the organization’s decades-long identity.
Schack said the corps is placing a major emphasis on texture and atmosphere in its 2026 music. One focal point of the production, he said, is a large front-ensemble percussion rack packed with various instruments intended to invoke a “stormscape.”
The corps also plans to prominently feature a flute soloist during the ballad — continuing a recent Hurricanes trend of incorporating individual woodwind voices into ensemble moments.
“We like to pull in these different elements and not just stick with your conventional brass, percussion and guard,” Schack said. “I think it’s important to give people opportunities and platforms to play these instruments.”
Visually, the corps plans to rely heavily on its color guard to guide the audience through the emotional progression of the production. According to Schack, the guard’s evolving color palette — shifting from darker blues and purples into brighter tones as the storm clears — will help communicate each phase of the show’s emotional arc.
Now, as the corps moves deeper into spring rehearsals, Schack said Hurricanes is currently in full production mode with nearly all of the music and drill already in performers’ hands.
And in his eyes, the corps is building toward a summer that will authentically reflect both the Hurricanes’ identity, and the growth of the organization itself.
“We are a storm,” Schack said. “We are a high-energy type of drum corps that’s known within the all-age community for causing a ruckus and just being disruptors in that way.”
