Marching to the beat of their own drum, the Gold Youth Arts Organization performed at College of the Canyons for the second time during the Gold Drum & Bugle Corps annual Gold Showcase.
The nonprofit, which is a part of Drum Corps International, consisted of a lineup entailing the “21-time DCI World Champion Blue Devils, the seven-time DCI World Champion Santa Clara Vanguard, and two-time DCI World Champion Bluecoats from Canton, Ohio — marking their first appearance in Southern California in 17 years,” according to a news release sent out by the organization.
The Gold Drum & Bugle Corps, a flagship program of the Gold Youth Arts Organization, is a way for young adults between the ages of 15 to 21 to hone their music capabilities, according to President Matthew Chuck.
“In high school, a lot of kids take band to get out of PE because it’s a PE requirement. Then the kids really love the music and love to march — then, there’s these 10% that just love the activity, love the music, are passionate about making music, and those are the kids that we get. This is a 12-minute show dedicated to them, and this year our corps is only about 120 kids. It is brass and percussion, so that means no clarinets or saxophones, but we can use those for special things like solos,” Chuck said.
According to Chuck, auditions take place in the beginning of the year, allowing the performers to rehearse for months.
“We travel across the country. We travel for three weeks in California and have shows in Stanford and Sacramento. Our home show is in Santa Clarita, and then we’llbe at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. We’ll also be traveling to Texas and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where the Colts play,” Chuck said. “We’re sort of a nomad corps, insofar as we don’t really have a home base, so we’ve been working on making Santa Clarita ours. We want to be ‘Santa Clarita Gold’ — my campaign thoughts are that gold returns to Santa Clarita.”
Santa Clarita is a city that Chuck believes could benefit the Gold Youth Arts Organization, and vice versa.
“Santa Clarita is the third largest city in Los Angeles County. There are a lot of high schools in the district; they all have really strong marching programs. There’s wide spaces, it’s growing, there’s a lot of places that we could have for storage, for office buildings, rehearsal spaces. A bunch of our members and their families are from Santa Clarita. It just so happened that last year we needed a new venue, and I found College of the Canyons, and they’ve embraced us,” Chuck said.
Chuck has been CEO of the Gold Youth Arts Organization for five years, but has been a part of the organization since 2018 due to his son’s involvement for several years. The nonprofit celebrated its 20th anniversary last year.
“The name of the show is ‘Luminous,’ and pretty much what it means is stop what you’re doing and look at the beauty around you. Essentially, stop and smell the roses. You know, we’re moving so fast in society these days, and we’re not taking time to notice the beauty of just the sun coming through the trees, or the birds, or just the color of a sunset,” Chuck said. “We’re just encouraging people to get out there, come visit, bring the kids, and you know, experience this firsthand, especially if they’re young budding musicians.”
