By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
For the past week, 14 recent Lake Orion graduates, and one current student, have proven to be some of the finest young musicians on the planet with their participation in the World Championships for Drum Corps International (DCI).
DCI is a marching activity that teams compete in every summer across the country for students 21 and younger. Percussionists, brass musicians and color guards representing teams ranging in size from 20 students to 164 compete for the world championship title through a series of brackets and phenomenal music, marching and dancing.
Students first participated in the prelims, semi finals, and then finals at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, with more than 20 different corps, and competing against corps from the Netherlands, The Philippines, China and Japan.
Lake Orion students who competed include: 2013 graduates Yuka Yanagita, Brooke Treece, Joshua Meyer, Noah Dyer and Domenic Santini; 2014 graduate Thomas Wharton; 2015 graduates Alex Leh, Dallas Kiefer, Kaelee Belletto, Sara Olds, Karmen Kahrs, Katie Tyrrell, Kim Hupperich and A.J. Pecheniuk, and 2016 graduate Lexi Savard.
From the cymbals to the baritone, to the mellophone, trumpets, the marimba, a tuba, and several color guards, the Dragons represented Lake Orion with pride.
First in the world were the Blue Devils, for their second straight world championship. Brodie Lewis from the Lake Orion Band Staff represented the Dragons with his third world championship as part of the Blue Devils.
Kim Hupperich (color guard) and Katie Tyrrell (trumpet) walked away with silver medals, as part of the Carolina Crown corps.
Bronze medallists include Brooke Treece (tuba) and Joshua Meyer (trumpet), who played for The Bluecoats.
The Boston Crusaders came in fourth, and 2010 LO graduate Steve Swetich is on their instructional team.
Santa Clara Vanguard corps team took fifth, with 2004 LO graduate Joe Busuito recognized on their brass instructional team.
The Madison Scouts came in 8th and The Cavaliers finished in 9th. The Blue Stars finished in 11th and Crossmen rounded out the top 12 in 12th place. Genesis finished semifinals in 22nd place and Legends, who qualified for semifinals for the first time in their history, finished in 25th place.
For a complete list of rankings and for more information visit http://dci.org/.