Have you heard?

A world champion marches among us.

Words by Emily W. Dodd ’03

Grace Trumpy ’25 (center) / Photo credit: Josh Clements for Bluecoats

Drum and bugle corps is a bit of a niche hobby, but for trumpet player Grace Trumpy ’25, it is in her blood. “My dad and cousins marched,” she says. “I’ve been going to shows since I was three.”

Now, Trumpy has earned her spot among drum corps royalty as a world championship-winning member of the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps.

Dubbed “marching music’s major league,” competitive drum and bugle corps is like marching band, but to the extreme. It’s more competitive, more theatrical, more technically precise. And with only brass and percussion instruments, the corps’ sound is more intense.

Marchers audition to become members of exclusive groups and then compete for a chance to be in what is considered the big game: the Drum Corps International World Championship.

When Trumpy made the cut as a member of the Bluecoats, she was one of 165 talented brass players, percussionists, and color guard members —all between the ages of 14 and 21 — selected from hundreds of aspiring marchers nationwide.

She spent months with the ensemble working to perfect their performance. During the academic year, Trumpy traveled to Canton, Ohio, (where the Bluecoats are based) for intensive weekend camps of music rehearsals and fitness. Summer comprised an 8,000-mile tour during which the Bluecoats performed at shows around the country, competing against other world-class drum and bugle corps.

All of this was in pursuit of the pageantry of a 12-minute musical and visual production that demanded the flawlessness of a concert at Carnegie Hall and pushed the physical limits of the human body.

But it was all worth it when, in August, Trumpy and the Bluecoats won the 2024 Drum Corps International World Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“Knowing that I have fulfilled a dream of mine that I have had since I was a kid is such a rewarding feeling,” Trumpy says. “I wouldn’t change a minute of it, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.”