In honor of Women’s History Month, the Madison Scouts are proud to feature stories from the first class of women in membership as well as the women on staff.
Carley Belknap, Amelia Kannon, and Thea Kilbane were members of the Madison Scouts in 2021. Belknap was a cymbal player, Kannon was in colorguard, and Kilbane was a drum major. Belknap and Kannon will be returning for their second summers. Kilbane aged out in 2021 and returned to the Scouts as an administrative intern.
Tell me your story. How’d you get into the marching arts and subsequently Madison Scouts?
Belknap: I joined marching band in high school, I always knew it was something I wanted to try because my grandpa was a band director. After my first season, I joined my high school’s indoor drumline group. As I was researching what cymbals were, the first thing that came up were videos from DCI cymbal lines. I had no idea what DCI was, but I just thought they were doing really cool cymbal tricks and it made me want to learn more about cymbal playing and just get more involved with the marching arts activity as a whole. In 2015, the summer after my freshman year, the Madison Scouts brought back their cymbal line after a seven-year-long hiatus and set a completely new standard for excellence in marching cymbal playing. After watching them that summer, I was so inspired that I knew marching DCI was something I had to do. However after I graduated high school, I had serious doubts that I would ever get to march DCI. In the 2019 season, about half of all of the world class cymbal lines in DCI were suddenly removed for various reasons, including at the Madison Scouts. So when I heard that the Madison Scouts were bringing back their cymbal line and becoming gender-inclusive in 2020, that changed everything for me. It seemed like all the stars miraculously aligned in that moment for me to chase what I had always dreamed of doing. I thought “this might be the one chance I’ll ever get to be able to play cymbals in DCI”.
Kannon: Beginning of my color guard career, I was a band kid. I met two sisters who also did guard and they said, “You should do guard!” I fell in love with it, and then I started doing color guard in 7th grade… Kind of during high school, I was like “I don’t want this to stop after high school, I want it to keep going.” So I was like, “I want to do drum corps but I don’t know where, how, what corps do I pick, how do I audition?” My director was like, “Hey, I’m gonna go and teach at Madison, you should try out and see what it’s all about.” I’ve always been a big drum corps fan and the Scouts just became inclusive and that’d be so great and this was in 2019. I was excited and I auditioned and I got a contract. I was one of the first women to get a contract and then 2020 happened, then I marched, and the rest is history.
Kilbane: In high school, I went to a really competitive program in Austin [Texas]. I knew right away when I went to the state marching contest my freshman year, that I wanted to be a band director, I wanted to do band forever. That year I tried out for drum major and got a section leader position right after that. My senior year of high school I ended up getting a drum major position and it was obvious that this was what I really wanted to do. I knew as a music education major, having drum corps experience is super important and so valuable, especially now in Central Texas. I went to see my first show in high school and I completely fell in love with the activity and I knew I couldn’t play a brass instrument, I knew I couldn't do color guard, but I knew I could conduct. Dr. Tiffany Galus tagged me in a Madison Scouts Facebook post because she knew I was auditioning and it was just so random. In 2019, I went to Blue Knights first and auditioned at Madison through video all around the same time frame. Luckily enough, I was cut [from Blue Knights]. I got this audition at Scouts and I didn’t even need to go in-person. The second I walked in [to Scouts camp], I knew instantly this was where I was meant to be. I knew in that moment that I had to audition.
What was your motivation behind staying with the Scouts from your initial contract in 2019 to marching in 2021 after the cancellation of the 2020 season?
Belknap: I think a large reason I persisted throughout the pandemic was because of the tenacity I developed through my experiences as a cymbal player in DCI and as a woman in marching percussion. I had already lost so many opportunities in the marching arts due to administrative decisions that removed cymbal positions and due to other commitments in my life. By the time I finally had earned a contract, I had a home, I had a place to march, and I was willing to wait however long it took to fulfill that dream. I also felt very grateful for my situation because I know there have been generations of incredibly talented women who came before me, but were never granted the same treatment and opportunities. I just happened to be very lucky with my timing. Two of the people who influenced my decision to stay were the other two women in the cymbal section that I got to march with, Anna [Koh] and Becca [Glenn]. They had been through similar experiences and hardships as me, and it was so motivating to know that I wasn't alone in my struggles and that we could all succeed together despite the world repeatedly telling us “no”.
Kannon: Definitely the Scouts and everybody who was already there doing MadU with me. The fact that we didn’t want to back down, we were like “You know what? We’re Madison Scouts, we’ve gotten this far. We’ve auditioned, we’ve met each other. We can’t back down now. If there is a great chance, we have to do this…” It was more of “We came this far and we want to do this together and make something great out of this horrible situation. You can’t give up, you have to be strong with all the others.”
Kilbane: I’m just really blessed and grateful for MadU because that was the format of, “Oh, it’s still real,” because it was. It was still drum corps, it was just different. We did something really revolutionary in online learning and drum corps as a whole, as an activity. Madison Scouts, within that online program, changed the idea of the education you get out of drum corps. Over the summer we had lots of assignments and we were really engaged and we got to make those connections with those techs over the summer. Having team support within the drum majors and you could tell them you were having an off day and couldn’t be there and to have someone be there and fill you in and let you know what happened was really helpful. Also having the staff being so supportive and understanding of what we were going through. In hindsight, they were going through the same exact thing. I don’t think that would’ve happened if we didn’t have that engagement online which I’m very grateful for. But knowing that the 2021 season was getting closer made me want to be there even more.
So tell me about your 2021 season. How’d it go? What were some of your struggles? Things you really enjoyed?
Belknap: With the 2021 season, there were definitely some growing pains that were caused by a variety of factors such as the pandemic and the shorter season, women and non-binary people getting integrated into the corps for the first time, and the fact that a cymbal line hadn’t been active in the Madison Scouts since 2018. The combination of all these things made it challenging to figure out how to work efficiently and effectively, especially in such a short time period. While those challenges were difficult, I was really impressed by how students and staff rose to meet those challenges. We were able to be really successful in the end because we created a fantastic final product while also maintaining a high quality experience for the members. This past season was definitely one of the highlights of my time in the marching arts, and I know I’ll carry those memories with me for the rest of my life.
Kannon: I think it went great. I’m a little worried future seasons won’t match up to it because it was so great… Everybody was so supportive and just excited to be with each other… I was so excited to be with a bunch of different people again and in the same space where we could all just agree that we got through something that sucked so much and now we’re going to make something great. We’re going to change each others’ lives. It’s cheesy, but it’s true.
Kilbane: First, of my season, getting adjusted into the regimented 12-hour days. Same day, over and over again. It felt very comforting for me because I had never experienced that before and there were a lot of other people who had marched who could be like, “This is what I went through my first year and this is how I can help you get through this.” There were also so many people who had never done this before. They were people who had been contracted for two years but had never gone on tour before. I had this anxiety about if I was going to be 100% all the time, and the answer was no. That’s so unrealistic. That’s something I struggled with mostly is not being completely present. I felt like I was slacking, and like I wasn’t working hard enough. This summer was a very vulnerable time in my life and also I think for the drum major team in general. Always just keeping that best interest for the corps. Taking the “I” out of everything as a drum major. I just grew up. I matured so much, more than I thought I could. Just meeting with people who had marched before and hearing their stories about what happened prior and questioning what we could do better to make sure that didn’t happen again. The best part of my summer was meeting the love of my life over the summer. I met some soulmates over tour and I’m so glad we got to experience this historical season together. I knew that it was meant to be that it was this one little time. I got everything I wanted and more with Scouts in 2021 and I’m very grateful for that.
Hit me with your top moment from the season.
Belknap: My number one memory from the season would have to be one of the other cymbal players, Anna Koh, who read “Goodnight Moon” every night of the season. I remember the first night of move-ins, she busted out the book to read to the cymbal section. I took a video of it and thought, “This is so cute, this is something I always want to remember.” I always joked that if I missed a single reading of “Goodnight Moon”, I would send myself home the next day because it was such an important experience. As the season went on, that tradition that started with just the cymbals grew and grew to include almost the entire corps. It was such a nice way to feel like the cymbals could be a good part of the Madison Scouts’ culture and it was a great opportunity to meet new people and get more connected to the community.
Kannon: Ooh. We had to retake our COVID tests before we left to make sure we were healthy. We were just sitting around on the basketball court at Eau Claire in our sections. We were just waiting, trying to get this thing done. While we were waiting for our results, we were just talking and there was the realization that we had never done this before. Nobody had experienced anything like this before. We were just chatting up, making light of the foreign situation. Taking it all in, it was just odd and kind of weird. It was just something none of us had done before.
Kilbane: The Saturday before our last show at the really, really muggy, hot field in Indianapolis. I conducted the last “Never Walk” for the entire corps. I knew that that was the “Never Walk” you want to conduct. Everyone is going to be there. Staff, volunteers, every single person who had been on tour was there. I still get chills thinking about it. I’m so thankful for that moment. From the first “Never Walk” I had done to that one, it was the most emotional, beautiful rendition that I had ever heard in my life. The hornline was just so emotional that day and having everyone in the circle just crying and hugging. If I could relive it, I would relive it every single day. It was such a gut-wrenching, bittersweet moment of “We did this, but now it’s over and we all have to go our separate ways and I don’t know when I’m going to get to see everybody again.” I’m grateful that as a corps we can all connect in that way together no matter where we are.
What’re you looking forward to the most for the 2022 season?
(Belknap and Kannon will be returning as members.)
Belknap: As a section leader, I’m really excited that I’ll be able to have a bigger role in shaping the direction of not only the Madison Scouts, but also the cymbal line specifically. I want to be able to leave a legacy that I’ll be proud of as an ageout and be able to look back on for years to come. I’m also excited to be able to lead the way as a woman on the leadership team and I hope to inspire the next generation of cymbal players. Another thing I’m looking forward to this summer specifically is marching with a friend who I started my marching career with and who I was supposed to march with at the Madison Scouts in 2020. It feels really special that we get to start and end our time in the marching arts together, especially after everything that happened with the pandemic.
Kannon: I think the feeling of not only performing, but starting to get better. When you meet everybody and you get comfortable with them mid-season before you start touring around. I’m just excited for when we finally settle in and start working on the show so much more and getting the momentum into building this project we had been working on for so long. That’s like when the switch starts to flip up and down and you realize that it’s all working.
Why did you decide to come back as an intern?
(Kilbane aged out in 2021 and returned on staff in 2022).
Kilbane: I started joking about being hired on in June. Around July, David told me they were going to be doing some internships. I thought, “This is my moment!” When the administration internship came up I knew I’d get to work with David who had been a mentor for me ever since I had been contracted. I also wanted to be that person that people in the corps can go to. To be that person that women and those who identify as women could come to about things they don’t feel as comfortable talking to those who appear more in charge.
If someone were to ask you why they should audition at Madison, what would you tell them?
Belknap: The people there are incredible. They’re so welcoming and encouraging, it’s a really healthy and positive environment. You can tell immediately that everyone wants you to succeed there and they’re willing to support you along the way no matter what that journey is. When you join the Madison Scouts, you’re forever a part of a long legacy of excellence in the drum corps activity that you won’t find anywhere else.
Kannon: I would tell them to absolutely do it. I feel like the Madison Scouts aren’t scary, they’re welcoming and nice. Not intimidating, but supportive. They’re going to push you hard and push you to your limits but you’re going to feel great being pushed because there’s so much support behind you.
Kilbane: I mean, I would write a novel on why they should. My big seller on Madison is that you’re going to get a very meaningful experience. You’re going to learn, you’re going to grow, you’re going to be put in situations you don’t want to be in but you’ll have so many people to help you. There’s trustworthy staff and they’re loyal and very good people who have the members’ best interests at heart. I never felt underneath anyone even as a member. You’ll get to be a part of a corps who has been around for so, so long and you’ll get to add to the nuance of being a Madison Scout. It’s such a cool thing to be a part of one of the original six drum corps. Again, Madison is going to be continuing to grow and they’ll always have something fresh. Why wouldn’t you want to be a part of that?
