Meet RCC and Cadets Winter Percussion

As my last blog post, I decided to research about my two favorite percussion ensembles, RCC and Cadets Winter Percussion. RCC's show this past season was entitled, "Bound is the Heart" RCC ended up in second place in the independent world class with a score of 97.563. Cadets Winter Percussion's  show was entitled, "The Dream Electric." They finished in ninth place with a score of 91.638. I was completely blown away by their shows this year, and became curious of their origins.

RCC's mission is to be the home of forward-thinking designers, educators and performers.Their goal is to provide their members with the best educational experience possible, and at the same time, consistently pushing the boundaries of performance art. Founded in 2001, RCC Indoor Percussion's  have consistently been setting new standards and creating the cutting edge of creative and performance excellence. In their first appearance at the WGI World Championships, they won the gold medal with the unforgettable show, "The Sound of Silence". Since then RCC has never placed out of the top four, winning the World Championship title in 2002, 2005, 2007, 2012, and 2015.

The first RCC show that I watched was when I was in 7th grade. That was the first year I joined drumline and I was completely new to the program, and clueless between good and great. RCC showed me the definition of great that year, 2013. The show that year was called, "State of the Arts."  I remembered the feeling of awe and amazement after each time I watched that show. Ever since then, RCC has been one of my favorite percussion ensembles and I have always felt that strange feeling in my chest. I feel like its a mix of disbelief and astonishment that a group of performers can be so great and perfect at what they do.

Cadets Winter Percussion was founded in 2013. Competing in the World-Class level, the indoor percussion ensemble is sponsored by The Cadets Drum Corps. The ensemble is made up of young men and women ages 16 to 22. Cadets Winter Percussion is founded upon The Cadets' well-established tradition of excellence in percussion performance and instruction. During the inaugural season, the ensemble achieved a record high score in WGI Independent Open Class, winning the 2014 World Championship. In 2015, Cadets Winter Percussion moved to Independent World Class, and placed sixth overall, an incredible accomplishment for a two year group. 

This year was the first time I have ever saw a Cadet show. I was mind was blown during one moment of their show, "The Dream Electric."  The snare drums were all playing together, and each of them slowly went down to their knee, but that wasn't all. They started airing the notes they played, in other words they moved their hands but they didn't hit the drum. My amazement didn't stop there. While they were airing, they actually started hitting the drum on specific counts. The transition between airing and playing was so smooth, that I felt like eyes and ears were playing tricks on me. I was completely astonished by how creative and amazing that part was.

The sources I used were RCC's and Cadets Winter Percussion's official website. Each source contained copy right information. I also know that these sources were accurate because they were recently updated. I can't wait to go back to Dayton, Ohio see the Cadets and I can't wait for indoor season to begin so I can see RCC.

Today was the last day that I would be posting. I am very, very, very thankful for all of those who viewed my posts. To be honest, I didn't really expect anyone to read them. This started out as a simple English project but quickly became something more. Throughout each post I started to realize how fun and incredible I could make these posts. When I realized that I had started getting views, I was even more motivated to make my posts as interesting and appealing as possible. Once again, thank you to everyone, and maybe I'll continuing posting in the future.

RCC Indoor Percussion. "About RCC." About. RCC Indoor Percussion, n.d. Web. 20 May 2016.                      
YEA! "About Cadets Winter Percussion." Youth Education in the Arts. YEA!, n.d. Web. 20 May 2016.                          

RCC 2016

Cadets Winter Percussion 2016

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