By Rebecca VanderMeulen
Photos courtesy of Reading Buccaneers Drum & Bugle Corps

The Reading Buccaneers didn’t come from New York City or northern New Jersey, where the good performers called home. Fifty years ago the rest of the drum-and-bugle circuit mocked them, calling them a bunch of farm boys.

As the cliché goes, that was then.

Now they’re pursuing their sixth consecutive Drum Corps Associates championship, having been undefeated since 2005. The 128 members include musicians who trek from as far away as Massachusetts and Virginia for weekend rehearsals and summer competitions up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

One recent Sunday, men, women and teenagers marched in 90-degree heat on a grassy field near the Reading Regional Airport, playing instruments like trumpets and snare drums, some waving huge, colorful flags. As they performed a selection from Ottorino Respighi’s “Feste Romane” – part of this year’s repertoire of songs with a Roman theme – the percussion section kept time at the front of the field as the instrumentalists marched in a circle, forward, back, left and right.

The Bucs, as they’re affectionately known, are a troupe of 28 color guard members, 40 percussionists and 60 who play brass instruments like the bugle and French horn. They range in age from 14 to 57 and include students, teachers, lawyers and insurance underwriters.
Another group called the Buccaneer Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps, mostly made up of former members, performs locally instead of on the competition circuit.

Current and former Bucs often call the corps a family. They often spend more time with their musical family than the families they live with. The Bucs’ year starts with an open house the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when those who want to join are invited to learn what it takes. Anyone who wants to join can find a place within the corps, spokesman Tom Moore says.

Then the troupe holds marathon practices every other weekend, ramping up to every weekend around Easter. Each member is expected to practice at home, too. “It takes hours and hours and hours,” says Moore, a Bucks County resident who played trumpet with the corps in 2005. “There’s 135 pages of drill set to music.”

Plus, the Bucs march in parades, the fees from which help cover their expenses of about $225,000 each year. They’re slated to appear in six parades in Maryland during the Fourth of July weekend.

Vibraphone player Nicole Tagliaferri, a senior at Coatesville Area Senior High in Chester County, joined the Bucs as a freshman. The long weekends and hard work are more than worthwhile, she says. “I enjoy performing in front of big crowds,” Tagliaferri says. “That rush of accomplishment just makes you feel really good inside.”

This year’s performance schedule started June 19 and ends Labor Day weekend with the championships in Rochester, N.Y. Along for the ride each performance weekend is a support staff of about 30 people who work behind the scenes year-round, doing everything from choreographing musical numbers to laundering uniforms to hosting out-of-town members in their homes when they come to Berks to rehearse.

The corps didn’t begin with such a grueling schedule and sterling reputation. The beginning goes back to the 1940s, when teens in the Reading area belonged to at least eight drum-and-bugle corps. Former Bucs president Bruce Young of Muhlenberg Township says that after he and other local corps members returned from fighting in the Korean War, they wanted to rejoin their musical groups. But they were too old.
So they started their own.

Other corps had names reflecting their musical styles, and the Berks founders wanted a name that evoked the sea. Their first idea was the Jolly Rogers, but eventually they settled on the Buccaneers instead. “When we got serious, who really wanted to be known as the Jolly Rogers?” says Young, an Army veteran and trumpeter who led the Buccaneers from 1964 to 1966.

When he took over, Young says the Bucs were a loosely organized group of guys who never showed up to leave for performances on time. But he ran a tight ship, and the Bucs celebrated their first victory in 1965. They won the championships in 1968 with a program that included a song based on “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” – a reference to those who mocked their country origins.

Corps Director Jim Gruber, a Hazleton resident who works at a plastic bottle factory, joined the corps in 1976 after graduating from Fleetwood High School. He’s been in charge since 1995, when financial troubles and low morale forced corps leadership to consider whether the Bucs should continue.

Gruber says the corps needed a new set of leaders. And he credits the dedication of the all-volunteer staff with making the Bucs a successful group people want to be a part of.
“We were down to, like, 18 horns,” he recalls. “Now we’re marching 60.”

Gruber’s set to be inducted this year into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame. That honor is well deserved, says Tom Peashey, spokesman for Drum Corps Associates, the organization that includes the Buccaneers and 27 other corps in 14 states and Canada. Peashey, a musician, former competition judge and ex-director, started competing against the Bucs a half-century ago.

“The dynasty that Jim Gruber has been able to put together is flat-out amazing,” Peashey says. “They are not a wealthy corps by any means. They are wealthy in personnel and they’re wealthy in leadership.”

Bucs drum major Chuck Jacobs, a tuba player and science teacher at Abington High School in Montgomery County, notes that most members belonged to their high school or college marching bands. But the corps’ success has less to do with their ability than the hard work of the musicians and their staff.

“It’s all about the people and the commitment that the people make,” Jacobs says.
Bugler Bruce Englehart, a Korean War veteran who helped found the Bucs and still plays with the alumni, says the current crop of members has more musical ability than his cohorts did.

“I cry sometimes,” Englehart says. “They’re that good.”

Don’t Miss!
Big Sounds in Motion
Reading Buccaneers Home Show
Aug. 28, 7 p.m.
Shirk Stadium, Albright College

General admission $14, reserved seats $17
www.bigsoundsinmotion.com

Reading Buccaneers
Tom Moore, public relations
610.413.0644
tjmoore724@comcast.net
www.readingbuccaneers.org

Help Support the Award-Winning Reading Buccaneers!

The Reading Buccaneers operate on a tight budget and depend on the generosity of donors and volunteers to continue their award-winning performances. There are a variety of ways to give tax-deductible donations to the Buccaneers.

Checks payable to the Reading Buccaneers Drum & Bugle Corps may be sent to:

Reading Buccaneers Drum & Bugle Corps
P.O. Box 13012
Reading, PA 19612

The corps also welcomes donors who want to include the Bucs in their estate plans. In-kind contributions, such as donations of equipment or food to feed the musicians during rehearsal weekends are also very appreciated.

For more information, contact Tom Moore at 610.413.0644.

About nine months ago, the Bucs set up an endowment fund through the Berks County Community Foundation. Donors can support this fund directly via the Foundation’s website, www.bccf.org , or by contacting the Foundation at 610.685.2223.