Star of Indiana

Star of Indiana was founded in 1984 with a grant from Willam Cook and Cook Group Incorporated, a cardiovascular medical device manufacturer based in Bloomington, Indiana. It was the first corps in history to finish in the top ten at the DCI World Championships in its first year of competition. Top ten finishes in the World Championships followed every year thereafter until the group ended its competitive career after the 1993 season.

In 1991, Star won the DCI World Championships, adding top three finishes in Finals for the next two years. Overall, the group won more titles from 1990 to 1993 than any other corps at that time.

After a public performance in 1992, the group's leadership decided it wanted to do more than entertain the public with a 10-minute drum corps routine. Following completion of the 1993 competitive season, Star left the field of drum and bugle corps competition and changed its focus to develop a new concept in brass and percussion performance. By using the powerful instrumental music and precise choreography of a drum corps to reinterpret everything from Broadway and popular movie musicals to classical music compositions, Star of Indiana created a new kind of stage show.

The result was a highly successful ten-city tour in the summer of 1994 featuring Star of Indiana with The Canadian Brass, the world's best-known brass quintet. Named "Brass Theater," this tour-de-force of musical virtuosity took audiences and critics by storm.

In 1995 and 1996, Star of Indiana continued its musical growth, refining Brass Theater with The Canadian Brass for two new tours to even greater audiences. They released three CDs of the tours, appeared nationally on a special broadcast by PBS, and performed live on such famous stages as the Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, Tanglewood and other leading venues. Brass Theater spent the next two years, 1997 and 1998, performing in the popular resort town of Branson, Missouri.

In 1999 the Star of Indiana organization took Brass Theater to another level when they created Blast! which premiered at London's Hammersmith Theatre. One year later Blast! came home to the United States and opened on Broadway to rave reviews. The show won the 2001 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event and and the 2001 Emmy Award for Best Choreography. Blast! began touring the United States that year and created additional casts to perform permanently at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

The members of Brass Theater and Blast! all had their start in DCI corps and never forgot their roots in drum corps.

[Star of Indiana]

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