Meet Rhythm X and Music City Mystique

As I mentioned on my posts a week ago, I recently traveled to Dayton, Ohio to the World Guard International Championships. There I was able to witness many extraordinary percussion ensembles such as Rhythm X and Music City Mystique. Rhythm X's show this year was entitled, The Alpha, which was about how a wolf pack decided its leader, or the alpha male. They ended up in fourth place with a score of  95.963. Music City Mystique's show this year was called In Bloom. They ended up in fifth place with a score of 94.863.
Rhythm X was founded in 2001 as a percussion ensemble that wanted to provide a source of music education and performance opportunity in the Greater Columbus Area, which is located in Ohio. They quickly escalated and grew to become a premier performance ensemble in the Winter Guard International World Class. Their spectacular design team consisted of  Tim Fairbanks, who is in charge of the visual design, Mike Scott, the ensemble director, Andrew Markworth, the music coordinator/ arranger, and Tim Jackson, the battery coordinator/ arranger. In Rhythm X's first year as an independent ensemble competing in the WGI Open Class, they won the Gold medal, setting the standard for their excellence. For the next 10 years, Rhythm X would prove to be a unique voice in the percussion world bringing an incredible design influence to the activity. Over their ten seasons in the WGI World Class, Rhythm X has won the World Championships twice, back-to-back in 2008 and 2009. They earned four other medals in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2010. Rhythm X is more than just a performance ensemble. All of their staff members teach extensively in other programs across the country. Not only do they teach in drum corps and independent ensembles, the staff members also instruct private lessons, high schools, and middle school percussions, winds, and even string programs. What's even more amazing is the fact that the majority of their members, in addition to school and work, teach music in programs all over Ohio. Rhythm X fosters a culture of advocacy for music programs and positive, competent instruction. They also open most of their rehearsals to the public.

 Music City Mystique was founded in 1994,  the early days of what is now WGI Indoor Percussion.  The "early days" was a far cry from today’s WGI Indoor Percussion ensembles, but the seeds of competition are being sown in places like California, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, and middle Tennessee.
 While there were two high school groups, Father Ryan and John Overton, from Nashville, Tennessee, Alan Rice saw a void in one particular area of the competition:  the independent class.  While the independent class was created for the 1994 competitive season, three of the competing groups were associated with drum and bugle corps and the fourth group was connected with a university. There was no group representing the large talent pool in the South. Rice, who was well-connected in the marching percussion scene throughout the South, told his friends and former students, Don Click and Chris Finen, that Nashville is the perfect place to fill this gap in the independent class by starting an independent line representing Nashville.
At that time, Don Click already had a great front ensemble at Brentwood High School, but not enough students for a full-sized battery. Chris Finen has a great marching battery at Harpeth High School,but not enough students for a competitive front ensemble. As if it were meant to be, Don and Chris combine their schools and created Nashville’s first independent WGI Indoor Drumline: Music City Mystique. However, the performers were not just from Don and Chris’s high school groups. Players from all over middle Tennessee came out and  helped define Mystique’s goals and standards.Click, Finen, Alan, and countless others helped cobble together Mystique’s first show, “A New Beginning . . .,” and lay the foundation for what is now the second oldest, and most successful, Independent World Class percussion ensemble in WGI.
The link I used to research Music City Mystique was http://musiccitymystique.org/history-2/. The website was a very reliable source because it has been recently updated thus making it acceptable to use for my topic. It also provided a long list of information and details about their history and the shows from each year starting from 1995. I learned a lot about MCM and how they became so successful. My memory of watching them at Dayton, Ohio became a lot more meaningful and treasurable to me after learning their background and path to success. At the end of both ensembles' performances, I had that feeling of amazement deep inside of me, because I knew I just witnessed something beautiful, and something that I will never forget.

Music City Mystique. "Music City Mystique – History." Music City Mystique. Music City Mystique, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.  
Rhythm X Inc. "About." Rhythm X, Inc. Rhythm X Inc.., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.                  

Rhythm X "The Alpha"

Music City Mystique "In Bloom"