The Madison Scouts are pleased to welcome Sean Womack (front ensemble arranger) and Tony Lymon (sound design) to the Percussion Design Team for the 2018 season. Sean and Tony join James Sparling (percussion director & battery arranger) and Mac Smith (sound design) who return from last season.PERCUSSION DESIGN

James Sparling, Percussion Director and Battery ArrangerJames Sparling received his degree in Music Education with a minor in Architecture at Miami University. He has been heavily involved in the world music ensemble, Global Rhythms, where he served as Percussion Coordinator and Arranger (2004-2006). This ensemble has led him to perform across the globe and work with Grammy winners Glen Velez and Jamal Mohammed, Ghatam Khartick's heARTbeat, Musafir, Jeff Queen, Michael Burritt, Anthony Cirone, Indian film composer A.R. Rahman, Nelly Furtado, and Lenny Kravitz. He continues to perform with this group annually.James has taught privately for several years, served as a Percussion Mentor at Tower Heights Middle School (2007), Director of Percussion at Bellbrook HS/MS (2007-2008), Assistant Band Director at Baker MS/Fairborn HS (2010-2011), Director of Percussion at Kettering Fairmont HS (2009-2013), Director of Percussion at Seminole HS (2013), and most recently as Director of Percussion at Plymouth-Canton Educational Park (2014-Present). His Concert Percussion Ensembles, Concert Soloists, and Concert Bands have annually earned highly regarded evaluations at the District and State Level.He marched tenors with Trinity Indoor Percussion Ensemble (2000), Music City Mystique (2001, WGI World Champions), Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps (2001), Glassmen Drum and Bugle Corps (2002), and Rhythm X (2003-2004). In 2002, James was a part of the Colin McNutt marching clinic and the MU Balinese Gamelan clinic at PASIC (2003).He served on the percussion staff for the Glassmen (2003), the Madison Scouts (2004-2006), the Carolina Crown (2007-2008), the Cadets (2009-2011), and RhythmX (2005-2013). He has served as the visual designer for Madison Independent (2011), Eastside Fury (2011-2013), and currently works with Spirit of America (2006-present). He has most recently been serving as the Caption Head and Arranger of the Madison Scouts (2012-2014), Infinity Percussion (2013-present), and Redline Percussion (2014-present). In 2015, James was appointed as the Percussion Director for the Madison Scouts and is excited to continue this role for his 4th season.

Sean Womack, Front Ensemble ArrangerSean Womack is an freelance percussion educator, clinican, and arranger based in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the co-founder and former partner of DoubleStop Percussion L.L.C., a percussion education company in Birmingham, Alabama. Mr. Womack received his Bachelor of Science in Music Education from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Master of Music in Percussion Performance from the University of Georgia. He is a former staff member of Spirit of Atlanta, Phantom Regiment, and the Mandarins Drum and Bugle Corps, before joining the Madison Scouts in 2017. Mr. Womack holds membership in the Percussive Arts Society, the National Association for Music Education and the Georgia Music Educators Association.

Tony Lymon, Sound DesignTony is the owner and designer of The Muse Foundry Multimedia in Petal, Mississippi and is the co-music arranger/co-show designer for the Petal High School marching band. Tony is the director show designer for Petal HS Indoor Percussion, a national WGI Percussion Scholastic World Finalist. He has contributed to the set design for Pulse Percussion for the past 4 years and audio design for many groups including Atlanta CV Indoor Percussion, Louisiana Stars, and DCA Silver Medalist Atlanta CV Drum Corps. Tony was also the Founder and Director of Eminence Indoor Percussion Ensemble, a regional and national WGI Open Class finalist and championship ensemble.Tony holds a Bachelors degree in Music Education from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Certification in 3D Architectural Rendering and Motion Graphics Design from The 3D Training Institute of New York. He has twice been awarded the Outstanding Junior High Director of the Southeast Mississippi Band Directors Association and the 2008 Mississippi Bandmasters Association AE McCLain Outstanding Young Band Director Award. He was the principal percussionist in the Southern Miss Wind Ensemble and Southern Miss Symphony Orchestra.Tony’s DCI experience includes being a front ensemble member of the World Champion Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps (Bloomington, IN) from 1991-1993. In his three years of DCI experience, he won the DCI-Midwest Solo Timpani Champion and the 1994 Percussive Arts Society International Solo Timpani Award.As a composer, Tony's original marimba composition "Of Thoughts and Thinking" has become a standard in percussion literature. The piece was most recently recorded by German percussion artist Cornelia Monkse on the CD "Marimba 2" and was featured in the French documentary film "Le Ciel.”

Mac Smith, Sound DesignMac Smith was born into a family of tuba players in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents and older siblings exposed him to films that were a bit mature for his age, and a wide variety of musical styles. Mac experimented with video cameras, and picture editing throughout his childhood. He went off to Los Angeles at age 17 to take the Summer Production Workshop at USC Film School, and then made his home in Iowa City, at the University of Iowa.Mac marched in the sousaphone section of the Hawkeye Marching Band, and studied film at Iowa. During his time in Iowa City, Mac decided to audition for the Madison Scouts drum & bugle corps and landed a spot in the contra section for the 1995 season.Mac has worked on post production sound for over 75 films at Skywalker Sound (“Sing”, “The Birth of a Nation”, “Toy Story 3”, “Tron Legacy”, “Rango”) and has been nominated for 10 Golden Reel awards (Motion Picture Sound Editing).In 2011, Mac and Tom Tollefsen started developing the concept of a documentary film that focuses on the drum corps activity that they wanted to direct and produce. The film, “Scouts Honor: Inside a Marching Brotherhood” screened at four film festivals from 2014 to 2015 and took home 3 awards. The film has inspired a number of people to get involved with the marching arts for the first time.