Meet the Minnesota music educator behind the top drumline in the country

It was a “pretty heavy-duty butt-kicking,” in the best way.

So said Michael McIntosh, percussion designer for the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps, after the group’s drumline won the award for best percussion performance at the Drum Corps International World Championships from Aug. 10 to 12 in Indianapolis.

The Cavaliers, based in Rosemont, Illinois, finished eighth overall, which makes capturing the Fred Sanford award for the top drumline all the more impressive.

“It renewed our faith in the system, because it is so rare,” McIntosh said. “It was the first time since 1982 that a percussion section has won from that deep in the pack.”

A scoring change in 1984 made such a feat even more difficult.

The Cavaliers — which, like all DCI corps, can have up to 165 performers split among percussion, brass and color guard — calls Illinois home, but Indiana native McIntosh lives in Shakopee. He followed his wife, a physician assistant, to Minnesota in 2012 and eventually landed his day job as a global strategic accounts representative for the software company ChannelAdvisor. It’s not the stretch one might think.

“I never saw myself as a 9-to-5er,” said McIntosh, 54. “But I found something that is fluid and dramatic like music, which is e-commerce, a kind of dance with customers. I use all the soft skills I developed in music to apply to another space.”

Those skills germinated during his school years in Indiana, where he began as a saxophone player.

“They asked me to be a part of the drumline one year, and it just took hold of me and wouldn’t let me go,” he said. “I just loved it, gravitated to it.”

In a twist, he was cut from the Cavaliers in 1987 and ended up marching for three years with another corps, California’s Concord Blue Devils (who have won the top overall prize at DCI the past three years and 21 times in total). Meanwhile, he earned a music degree from Butler University in Indianapolis.

Since 1992, he has been teaching music, including 15 years as a percussion specialist at Carmel High School in Indiana (“we built it up to be a super powerhouse”); giving clinics worldwide, which led him to introduce the Chinese to the marching arts; composing, and judging competitions. He has been working with the Cavaliers since 2009, including serving as the percussion caption head when the corps’ drumline won two previous Fred Sanford awards.  

McIntosh attributes the accomplishments of the Cavaliers, a group of young men 16 to 22 from around the world, to the culture that’s been created. In fact, this year’s on-field show paid tribute to great moments in the corps’ 75-year history. Here’s a percussion-focused excerpt from the Cavaliers’ performance at the DCI Southwestern Championship in San Antonio earlier this summer as an example of their level of achievement, courtesy of FloMarching.

“We call it the junkyard dogs — they’re scrappy, bring-your-lunch-pail, blue-collar. We really got people that fit into that mold,” McIntosh said. “You can hear in the music that they get along.

“And we really work hard on the composition side to make sure the performers are set up for success, that the music is the most achievable that we can give them, something they can feel great about performing.”

The “we” comprises a large behind-the-scenes team, including percussion caption head Josh Brickey, battery coordinator Russell Wharton, ensemble coordinator Lane Armey, lead choreographer Tim Jackson, visual specialist Andrew Polk and music consultants Tom Aungst and Bret Kuhn — plus a raft of staffers dedicated to the percussion beat.

This rehearsal footage from the YouTube channel Drum Corps Coffee Shop (@rbass311), featuring snare drummer Garrett Irwin with a GoPro “snare cam,” shows what goes into a performance.

So, how does a Minnesota guy stay connected with a corps in Illinois? McIntosh, who has two young daughters, cited “tons of Zooms, tons of text threads, tons of screen shares.” But he makes sure he spends about 30 days a year with the group in person, the better to share his interpretation of his compositions.

“I firmly believe music sounds better when you conduct it,” he said. “Because I wrote it, I know what it sounds like in my head. There’s an intimacy in the music that only comes from the composer, and being able to be there helps generate that.”

The next phase begins later this year, when the corps’ design staff meets to come up with concepts for 2024. McIntosh already sounds excited about what lies ahead.

“I’m an extrovert, so this type of experience is custom-made to light my fire,” he said. “It’s given me everything I could ask for, the skills to succeed in life. Drum corps has been hugely positive.”

All photos of the Cavaliers by Julie Adams. See more in her online portfolio.

The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps - 2023

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