The 135-member Dubuque Colts were among the contestants from across the U.S. in Ankeny for this weekend’s Drum Corps International competition. D-C-I members tour the country every summer competing for the title of World Champion. The Ankeny stop was the last for the Colts before competing in the world championships taking place this week in Denver, Colorado. The Colts performance package is titled “From the Heartland,” and features music by composers Joseph Wilcox Jenkins, Aaron Copeland, Robert Russell Bennett and wraps up with Jerome Kern’s tribute to the Mississippi, “Old Man River.” Here’s how the Iowa group was introduced at Sunday night’s event:The Colts finished 5th last night in the 22nd annual “Celebration of Brass” competition that featured three groups from California, two from Ohio, and one from each Wyoming and South Carolina. The World Championships start on Thursday and end on Saturday. In the spring of 1963, the Dubuque American Legion Post created a youth drum and bugle corps named the “Junior Dukes.” Now, the group is known as the Colts and has 135 members ranging in age from 15 to 22 on the brass line, percussion ensemble and color guard. They are a part of Drum Corp International, a non-profit youth organization founded in 1972. For more information on the Colts, visit “www.colts.org”.
