| Southwind Drum and Bugle Corps | |
| Division: | Open Class |
| Founded: | November 23,1980 by Michael D, Terry |
| Director: | Ernad Sisic |
| Titles: |
|
| Folded: | October 11, 2023 |
Southwind Drum and Bugle Corps was an Open Class competitive junior drum and bugle corps based in Mobile, Alabama. The corps was a Division I (now World Class) competitive junior drum and bugle corps in Drum Corps International (DCI) from 1993 through 2007. Prior to competing in Division I, Southwind competed in DCI's Class A/Division II and was that division's World Champion in 1991 and 1992. Southwind performed at competitive and non-competitive SoundSport events in Alabama and surrounding states during the summer of 2014. In early May 2015, DCI approved Southwind's return as an active Open Class corps.[1] [2] Southwind announced the cessation of operations in October 2023.[3]
Southwind was founded in 1980 by Michael D. Terry when a group of high school students at Robert E. Lee High School in Montgomery, Alabama wanted to march in a local drum corps. After setting up a non-profit youth organization and getting a charter as Explorer Post 2009 from the Tuckabatchi Boy Scout Council, Southwind's initial organizational meeting was held on November 23, 1980 in downtown Montgomery. Auditions were then held at Robert E Lee High School on December 13, 1980, and, on January 14, 1981, the corps had its first rehearsal.
The corps took its name from the Chicago-to-Miami passenger train "The South Wind" that passed through Montgomery on tracks beside what became the corps' practice field. In 1981, Southwind toured to contests in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and North Carolina before traveling to Philadelphia for the VFW National Drum and Bugle Contest (placing 5th of 8 corps) and then on the DCI World Championships in Montreal, where they finished 39th of 49 corps in Open Class Prelims. The corps undertook an even more extensive tour in 1982, where they placed 5th of 10 corps in the Drum Corps South circuit championships, and made another trip to the DCI World Championships in Montreal, where they were 36th of 49 corps in Open Class Prelims.
Loss of many charter members and debt accrued during the first two seasons caused the corps to go inactive before the start of the 1983 season. From 1983 through 1988, a cadre of supporters continued to raise funds to retire the outstanding debt.
Southwind returned to competition in 1989. The corps toured throughout the South, then traveled to Kansas City, Missouri, where they placed 10th of 23 corps in Class A60 (for corps with no more than 60 members). The corps improved to 4th of 23 corps in Class A60 at Buffalo, New York in 1990.
In 1991, Southwind moved into Class A and was undefeated in 16 contests against only Class A corps and won the DCI Class A World Championship over 18 other corps at Dallas. In 1992, Southwind continued its winning streak in the renamed Division II, placing first in another 16 shows before falling to 3rd place among 18 corps in Division II prelims at Whitewater, Wisconsin before rebounding in finals to claim its second DCI World Championship. In both 1991 and 1992, Southwind finished among the top 25 corps in DCI's Open Class/Division I quarterfinals, earning full membership in the organization.
Southwind moved to competing solely in Division I in 1993 and beyond. For five seasons, the corps placed 17th through 24th at DCI Finals, but was finding it more and more difficult for the small group of local boosters to administer the unit. In the 1997 season, several staff members of the Madison Scouts also worked with Southwind; at the end of the season, corps director Dave Bryan approached the Scouts' management about assuming the sponsorship of Southwind. In 1998, the Madison Drum and Bugle Corps Association, Inc. took over the operation of Southwind. The corps was inactive for that season, as its operations were moved from Montgomery to Lexington, Kentucky.[4]
Returning to the field in 1999, Southwind placed 15th at DCI Championships in Madison, Wisconsin. 2000 was Southwind's best season in Division I, as the corps finished 13th at College Park, Maryland, although the corps scored no worse than 12th in all captions. Southwind finished 15th at Buffalo in 2001 and 18th at Madison in 2002. In reorganizing its house after a disappointing season, the Madison Drum and Bugle Corps Association severed its ties with Southwind.
Back on its own, Southwind formed the Bluegrass Youth Performance Corporation as a sponsoring organization. The corps continued as a large, well-respected, but second-tier, Division I corps through 2007, when economic conditions led the corps to another period of inactivity.
In 2011, Southwind Drum & Bugle Corps came under the control of Southwind Alumni Association, Inc. 2011 through 2013 were rebuilding years for the organization as they raised funds and sought sponsorships for returning the corps to competition. The corps also returned to the Mobile area.
In November and December 2013, Southwind held its first recruitment and audition camps since leaving the field in 2007. In 2014, the organization fielded a 50-member SoundSport team and performing in exhibition at some DCI shows as a route to reentering DCI competition in 2015.
In early May 2015, DCI approved Southwind's return as an active Open Class corps and placed the corps on the summer schedule for five shows in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi.[2] After competing in six contests in 2016, the 2017 corps entered a dozen contests in eight states, including a return to DCI Open Class Championships and DCI World Championships for the first time since 2007.
On October 11, 2023, Southwind announced that it was ceasing operations due to rising transportation and housing costs.[5]
Sources:[6]
| Light blue background indicates DCI Open Class Finalist | |
| Goldenrod background indicates DCI Open Class Champion | |
| Pale green background indicates DCI World Class Semifinalist |
| Year | Theme | Repertoire | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score | Placement | |||
| 1981 | 51.800 | 39th Place Open Class | ||
| 1982 | 53.800 | 36th Place Open Class | ||
| 1983–88 | Corps inactive | |||
| 1989 | Southland by Salvatore '"Tutti" Camarata / Stars Fell On Alabama by Frank Perkins & Mitchell Parish | 71.300 | 10th Place Class A60 | |
| 1990 | You are My Sunshine by Jimmie Davis & Charles Mitchell / Lucretia MacEvil by David Clayton-Thomas / Sometimes in Winter by Steve Katz / God Bless the Child by Billie Holiday & Arthur Herzog Jr. / (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher by Gary Jackson & Carl Smith | 82.000 | 4th Place Class A60 Finalist | |
| 1991 | The Little Mermaid | 92.700 | 1st Place Champion | |
| 68.000 | 23rd Place Open Class | |||
| 1992 | Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves | 92.900 | 1st Place Champion | |
| 73.600 | 22nd Place Division I | |||
| 1993 | Far and Away | 73.000 | 22nd Place Division I | |
| 1994 | A League Of Their Own | 69.100 | 19th Place Division I | |
| 1995 | Gospel | 71.900 | 17th Place Division I Semifinalist | |
| 1996 | A Gospel Celebration | Make His Praise Glorious by Bill and Robin Wolaver / Amazing Love by John Schweers / Resurrection Ceremony by Greg Gumina / Are You Ready for a Miracle (from Leap of Faith) by Art Reynolds & Bunny Hull / All Creatures of Our God and King by St Francis of Assisi & Friedrich Spee, adapted by William Henry Draper | 66.800 | 24th Place Division I |
| 1997 | Scenes from Childhood | 71.700 | 21st Place Division I | |
| 1998 | Corps inactive | |||
| 1999 | American Salute by Morton Gould / Kentucky Suite / Hymn to the Fallen (from Saving Private Ryan) & Summon the Heroes by John Williams | 78.400 | 15th Place Division I Semifinalist | |
| 2000 | 84.950 | 13th Place Division I Semifinalist | ||
| 2001 | A New Era | Fanfare for a New Era by Jack Stamp / Academic Festival Overture by Johannes Brahms / Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Samuel Barber / Fire Storm by Stephen Bulla | 80.050 | 15th Place Division I Semifinalist |
| 2002 | Evolution | 79.250 | 18th Place Division I | |
| 2003 | Dance Portraits | 77.500 | 21st Place Division I | |
| 2004 | A Journey Through the Sands | 78.050 | 18th Place Division I | |
| 2005 | A Distorted Imagination | Star of Bethlehem (from Ben-Hur) by Miklós Rózsa / Pure Imagination (from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) by Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley / The Battle (from Gladiator) by Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard / Mars (from The Planets) by Gustav Holst / Blue Shadows and Purple Hills (from Spartacus) by Alex North / Main Title (from The Wind and The Lion) by Jerry Goldsmith / Incantation (from Quidam) by Benoît Jutras / The Mother's Love (from Ben-Hur) by Miklós Rózsa / Bacchanale (from Samson and Delilah) by Camille Saint-Saëns / Reunited (from Van Helsing) by Alan Silvestri / The Horseman & Raisuli Attacks (from The Wind and The Lion) by Jerry Goldsmith | 80.950 | 16th Place Division I Semifinalist |
| 2006 | Duality | Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky / In the Spring, When Kings Go Off to War by David Holsinger / Lost in the Darkness (from Jekyll and Hyde) by Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse / Pie Jesu (from Requiem) by Andrew Lloyd Webber / Incantation (from Quidam) by Benoît Jutras / Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy / Tenth Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich / Original Music by Steve Vento | 77.950 | 18th Place Division I |
| 2007 | InTheLoop | InTheLoop by Steve Vento, Shane Gwaltney & Eric Willie | 77.950 | 19th Place Division I |
| 2008–13 | Corps inactive | |||
| 2014 | Our Heart Beats | New Life & New Tricks by Jeremy Johnson / New and Old by Jeremy Johnson | Did not attend World Championships | |
| 2015 | By The Numbers | |||
| 2016 | Motion | |||
| 2017 | Toxic Mind | Wrecking Ball by MoZella, Stephan Moccio, Sacha Skarbek, Kiyanu Kim, Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald & Henry Russell Walter / The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky / Creep by Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien & Phil Selway (Radiohead) and Albert Hammond & Mike Hazlewood / Superstition by Stevie Wonder / Dies Irae / Toxic by Cathy Dennis, Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg & Henrik Jonback / Hysteria by Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme & Dominic Howard (Muse) | 70.125 | 9th Place Open Class Finalist |
| 68.838 | 32nd Place World Class | |||
| 2018 | The Guitarist | 69.700 | 10th Place Open Class Finalist | |
| 66.438 | 33rd Place World Class | |||
| 2019 | Caged | Drive to Bohemia by Elliot Goldenthal / Highwire by John Mackey / The Grind by Justin Williams / Ordinary World by Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, James Bates & Warren Cuccurullo (Duran Duran) / Symphonia Resurrectus (from Easter Symphony) by David Holsinger | 75.638 | 5th Place Open Class Finalist |
| 72.363 | 27th Place World Class | |||
| 2020 | Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic | |||
| 2021 | Opted out of competition for the season | |||
| 2022 | STAND | Stand Up by Cynthia Erivo / Level Up by Vienna Teng / Man In The Mirror by Michael Jackson / Original Music by Ryan Reed & Elanders Frazier | 77.638 | 6th Place Open Class Finalist |
| 73.125 | 28th Place World Class | |||
| 2023 | Cowboys of the Sky | Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin / Our Town by Aaron Copland / Urban Light by James M David / Music from On Golden Pond by Dave Grusin | 79.125 | 3rd Place Open Class Finalist |
| 77.450 | 22nd Place World Class Semifinalist | |||