Yamaha Celebrates 33 Years of Collaboration with Marching Music’s Major League

Following the DCI World Championship finals at Lucas Oil Stadium this month, Yamaha is celebrating 33 years of collaboration with Marching Music’s Major League.

Yamaha is the official drumline brand for 20 total drum corps, which is an all-time high for the company. 

Yamaha corps have accrued 17 DCI Championships and 14 Fred Sanford High Percussion Awards, which is more than any other manufacturer since Yamaha percussion entered the activity in 1985. In addition, corps that use Yamaha instruments have won a third of all gold, silver, and bronze medals bestowed in DCI competition over that time period.

“Yamaha dominates DCI in no uncertain terms,” says Troy C. Wollwage, percussion marketing manager, Band & Orchestral division, Yamaha Corporation of America. “In 2017, for the first time ever, there were eight corps using Yamaha percussion instruments in the Top 12 Finale and nine corps using Yamaha wind instruments. This is the most ever and is a testament to the quality, consistency and manufacturing these corps need every day during to perform at their highest level.”

This year’s DCI World Class Silver Medalist Santa Clara Vanguard received the Fred Sanford High Percussion Award for the second consecutive year, and Carolina Crown won its sixth Jim Ott High Brass Award out of the last nine years.

“Corps playing Yamaha brass have won the Jim Ott High Brass Award in 11 of the 18 years since the transition from G bugles to modern marching brass in DCI, and have placed as six of the top 12 in the brass caption for 11 straight years,” said Brian Petterson, winds marketing manager. “Through support of the drum corps activity, tens of thousands of young people have had the benefit of using a Yamaha musical instrument. And these young people will someday become the future of music education.”