While many recent grads have spent the summer soaking up as much time as possible with friends and family before going off to school or working at summer jobs, Chandler gradIzzySimpsonhasbeen doing something a little different.
She’s spent hours out in the sun rehearsing and tossing rifles and flags into the air, all while battling sun poisoning. And then competing.
Simpson is part of the color guard for Zephyrus, an Open Class drum corps in Drum Corps International (DCI). The group is based out of Tulsa, but has members from Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. DCI is considered the NFL of marching bands.
Izzy first heard about it her junior year when a classmate and Chandler band director Zachary Fisher were discussing it. Her classmate auditioned and made the corps, but eventually decided not to participate. Her senior year, Fisherbroughtup Zephyrus again after she stated she wanted to keep doing guard past high school.
“He mentioned, ‘Well, I mean, you could always try out for Zephyrus.’And I was like, ‘You know what? You’re right.’And so I gave it a shot. I tried out, and eventually I got contracted, and from there I was just, go to all the camps, go to all of the tour stuff, and that was that,” she said.
Zephyrus is one of 19 Open Class drum corps in DCI, which also has 21 World Class drum corps. The main difference between the two is that World Class is considered more elite and tends to have bigger corps with more professional members. They also have longer tours.
However, this doesn’t mean Zephyrus and other Open Class corps are any less competitive. Simpson was one of hundreds that auditioned for the 85 spots. Not to mention, even returning members aren’t guaranteed a position -- everyone has to audition every year.
“During my audition, there were several vets that, or people that would have been vets had they made it, but they ended up not making the cut,” she said. “Like, we can’t be giving people special treatment just because they marched with us a previous season. Which I really liked. I enjoyed that a lot because that means that you actually have to work for it.”
While being in the guard (and playing flute) for the Pride of Chandler helped prepare Izzy, being in Zephyrus and the DCI was a world away from high school. She said one of the biggest differences was how everyone clearly wanted to be there, which affected the work ethic overall.
“We want to be here. We want to do this. We want to strive to do better than last year, or better than how we were in high school,” she said. “For me, I really wanted to just be a better performer.”
There was also the sheer size of the corps. Simpson went from a 30-somethingstrong band to a group of 85 performers, many of whom came from much larger schools and marching bands. It’s also far more intense, with everyone expected to learn the entire eight-ish-minute show in about four days. Izzy talked about 12-hour rehearsals and learning the final set the night before their first show in Catoosa.
Thiswasallcompounded by the fact that Izzy got sun poisoning and had to sit out of outdoor rehearsals for three days. However, it was during all of this that she learned one of the biggest lessons both in life and with the drum corps -- that despite trying to be independent, it’s okay to ask for help.
The staff worked with her to make sure that she didn’t fall so far behind she had to sit out part of the performance, and her fellow performers were there as well.
“They were also trying to help me out, and that was just like the overall vibe that… like together we will fly. We’re in this together,” she said. “Everyone was trying to be there for one another and… make sure that no one’s falling down to the wayside.”
And together they were. Zephyrus had a short but intense schedule, starting with the first day of rehearsal on June 13 and ending with their last competition, DCI McKinney, on July 20. The corps currently sits in sixth place in OpenClassascompetitions continued, but ended its season in third.
Izzy said this won’t be her only season. Already she’s planning to audition for two World-Class corps next year, on top of reauditioning for Zephyrus.
“It’s definitely something that I plan to continue trying to do, because I loved performing and all of that,” she said. “And it’s definitely something that I would recommend to those who do want to continue marching outside of just high school or even college.”