Al Chez joins New York Skyliners Alumni 2018 instructional staff

The 2018 season is not far away and the New York Skyliners Alumni Corps is already in the planning stages. Director Jim Stanko is pleased to announce that Al Chez will take over the reins of the brass program this fall and for the 2018 season.

Although he has gained world fame as the long-time trumpet player on CBS’s “The Late Show With David Letterman,” it is well-known that his roots are in drum and bugle corps. He has been involved with many drum corps over the years, beginning in 1969 with the Saints from Woodbridge-Edison,NJ.  (​photo by Raymond Fudge)

In the late 1970s and early 1980s he became a member and soloist with the Garfield Cadets. Al has also performed with the Bushwackers and the Reading Buccaneers.

He continues to donate his time to DCI and DCA corps and is also a member of The Cadets, Crossmen staffs and was indicuted into the Buglers Hall of Fame. (inset, Al Chez, soloist with Garfield Cadets)

Al has been a design/instructor for many of today’s DCI and DCA corps, including The Cadets, Empire Statesmen, Reading Buccaneers, Bushwackers, Oakland Crusaders, Kingston Grenadiers as well as starting his 18th year as designer for the Crossmen. He is also a Yamaha certified clinician and artist.

The 2018 creative team and Instructional staff for the New York Skyliners Alumni include: brass caption head, Al Chez; brass techs, Pete Chez, Brad Coleman, Bob Farrell and Greg Cinzio; percussion caption head and arranger, Wes Myers; instructors: Jack Murray, Joe Fontana, Joe Musich, Bob “Jomba” O’Conner and Jack McGuinness, keyboards; visual: Frank Rogers and Bob Findley, color guard; Brenda Peregrim and Sue DeJessa, honor guard; and Dolores Burbalak.

The Skyliners Alumni will be celebrating their 25th Anniversary in 2018 and the group is sponsored by American Legion Post 1523, Staten Island, NY. Rehearsals are held at The Liberty School, 12 Tenafly Road, Englewood, NJ. The corps mission is to provide an opportunity for those wishing to be a part of a traditional drum and bugle corps by performing in a variety of indoor/outdoor performances, parades and maintaining a twice a month rehearsal schedule.

For more information, complete rehearsal/performance schedule, corps history, pictures and audio/video of the corps, please visit the Web site at http://www.skyalumni.org/ or contact Corps Director Jim Stanko at skybari80s@yahoo.com. Please also visit the corps on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/Skyalumni/ or Twitter at @SkylinersAlumni.

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