Prior to embarking on the 2025 Drum Corps International Summer Tour, The Academy sent its drum line to perform with the Phoenix Symphony for a Beyoncé-themed concert at Phoenix Symphony Hall.
“Our fan base is strong within itself, but it can be a bit isolated, and so these types of events are meant to kind of break down the walls and bring different people into the symphony, or different eyes in front of drum corps,” said Academy executive director Josh Thye. “I think it accomplished both; the reaction was better than I could have ever expected.”
The idea for The Academy’s involvement with the Phoenix Symphony originated back in May of 2024 when long-time drum corps fan Chistopher Powell, the Symphony’s vice president of operations and artistic planning, along with Valerie Bontrager, the symphony’s senior director of community engagement and education, went out to see The Academy prior to the start of their spring training rehearsals.
“Chris Powell is a real supporter of the Arizona Academy, and we’re just so humbled that he even thinks about us,” Thye said.
Around that same time, the two groups had somewhat of a first collaboration, as Thye put it, in which members of the symphony worked with members of The Academy within their respective instrument sections.
With the concept for “Beyoncé meets Beethoven” already in mind, Powell and Bontrager came up with the idea to include the corps’ percussion section in the concert through conversations with Thye. When the plan went into motion in May of this year, the learning process was quick for The Academy’s drum line.
Assistant percussion caption head Dakota McConnell had sheet music ready prior to the drum line “moving in” early with leadership in order to accommodate the performance schedule. Once settled in, members had two rehearsals with the Symphony before two concerts on May 30 and 31.
“I’m so grateful for Dakota, really just taking that on over and above everything else we’re doing, and it involved a lot of changes, I’ll just tell you,” Thye said. “But that’s with any good collaboration, so that ended up being a really positive experience, and it became a reality.”
The concert program, which consisted of 14 Beyoncé songs, featured The Academy’s drum line in two of the final three pieces of the night. Since Beyoncé typically brings out a live drum line at her concerts to assist with the tune “Formation,” it only made sense to introduce the Academy drum line for the start of that particular piece.
Along with The Academy’s drum line, the performance also featured other notable musicians. One of those was drummer TaRon Lockett, a three-time Grammy nominated artist and producer who has performed with the likes of Prince, Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson.
According to Thye, Lockett, who started out playing in his high school’s drum line, not only showed The Academy’s percussionists his high level of musicianship, but he also coached the students on how to fit their sound in with the Symphony.
“The fact that [Lockett] took time to talk and work with them, it’s a reminder that we all are band kids at heart at the end of the day,” Thye said.
Thye hopes that the concert will not only raise awareness for the band and drum corps communities, but he also hopes that it will bridge the gap between the band world and society as a whole.
“I think we need to continue to make these bridges because we can’t be in silos,” he said. “We can’t be in total isolation, and the talent and the incredible passion of the people we get to work with, the people who are out on a field right now outside this building that I’m in, I want to share that passion with as many people as possible.”
Finally, Thye acknowledged the impact the performance could have not only on the band community but also on society as a whole.
“It’s really my hope for not only our community here in the Phoenix area, but also just worldwide, that we find ways we can make these bridges, and the arts I think are going to be an example of that,” he said. “Maybe a fan of Beethoven and a fan of Beyonce are more similar than we thought. We were sitting together in a hall and enjoying music, and it was a really neat reminder of what the power of music can be.”
