The Santa Clara Vanguard will field a Rimsky-Korsakov-themed program in 2004 entitled "Scheherazade." "I am really looking forward to the 2004 season and with Rimsky-Korsakov's great music as the starting point, it should be one to remember!" said Key Poulan, the corps' program coordinator and brass arranger. The corps' design team met in October to review the 2003 season and to pick the concept for 2004. "The discussion regarding programming was very smooth and started with a brainstorming session of what we wanted the 2004 edition of Vanguard to be. Words like "passionate", "accessible," "innovative," etc. made the list first," Poualn said of this phase of the show planning process. Present at this October meeting were Poulan, Jim Casella (percussion arranger), Myron Rosander (drill designer), Adam Sage (color guard designer/choreographer), Rick Valenzuela (corps director) and Ron Hardin (staff coordinator). That staff decided to mix classic Vanguard elements with a new thrust in 2004, Poulan said. "There is a real desire by the entire design team to recapture the emotion of Santa Clara Vanguard while at the same time, not having to rely on regurgitating music that has previously been performed by the corps," Poulan said. "Many works, including the possibility of original music, were discussed. Eventually, "Scheherazade" floated to the surface rather quickly," Poulan said. "The design team feels strongly that the construction of the work melodically, harmonically and rhythmically are a great match to the drum corps. "Scheherazade" met all of the requirements of our brainstorming session and was ultimately the best choice for the 2004 season. Next, Poulan needed to figure out how to whittle down the lengthy Rimsky-Korsakov piece to a standard drum corps length. "Jim Casella (percussion arranger) and I met the next day and started deleting segments of the 45-minute work. It was very easy to remove about 30 minutes (specifically large phrases of the violin solo) when doing the initial edits. Removing another four or five minutes from "Scheherazade" was the most difficult task," Poulan said. Poulan and Casella then assumed the difficult task of filing down the piece even further. "There is so much wonderful music in the work that we found ourselves having to eliminate some really great moments," Poulan said. "At this point, "Scheherazade" is in the process of being arranged and is shaping up nicely," he added. Once the musical portion of the program was decided upon, Poulan and the rest of the design team will begin adding the other elements of the program. "Myron Rosander and Adam Sage have begun developing the visual concepts for this production. As program coordinator, my job will be to coordinate all of the elements throughout the entire design process," Poulan said.