Joe Jafek

I was selected to perform as a member of the World Class Seattle Cascades Drum & Bugle Corps for the 2023 season. Hundreds of individuals from around the world auditioned for the corps. As a member of the Seattle Cascades, I will train in the Northwest one weekend per month through May, before spending the summer traveling across the United States to perform and compete in the Drum Corps International Summer Music Games.

  

On the surface, the Seattle Cascades Drum Corps is a non-profit youth organization comprised of over 100 youth performers, who excel in one of three areas: brass, percussion, and color guard. We spend the summer learning, performing, and competing with a production that combines the music, theatrics, and pageantry of high school and college marching bands, with the talent and innovation of Broadway productions such as BLAST! and Cirque de Soleil. We travel the country for approximately ten weeks and end our season at the DCI World Championships hosted at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. In addition to the tens of thousands of fans who attend these live performances, these shows have been televised live on PBS, ESPN and in movie theatres around the United States, for an audience of millions.  

More importantly, however, the Seattle Cascades teach discipline, responsibility, tenacity and an appreciation for hard work - life skills that will benefit me far beyond my time as a member of this elite performance ensemble. The corps is truly a family and I am proud to be part of the tradition that is the Seattle Cascades.  

​

In order to participate in the Seattle Cascades this summer, each member of the organization is required to pay approximately $4,750.00 in member fees. The price of membership includes travel, instruction, food, uniforms, equipment, housing, and many other expenses incurred over the tour.  This amount is only 60% of the actual cost per member to tour for the summer. The other 40% is raised by the nonprofit organization, Northwest Music Association.