Fife and drum corps seeks local youth to step up and join

A fife and drum marching group for children and teens may seem unusual these days, but the boys and girls who have joined the Middlesex County 4-H Fife and Drum Corps are highly enthusiastic. Waltham has provided corps members in the past, and the corps hopes to recruit new members from the city.

The corps practices every Sunday (biweekly in the summer). It provides lessons in drum, fife and marching protocols and provides leadership opportunities. Corps members dress in Revolutionary War-style uniforms to join parades and musters and travel to historical sites, such as Fort Ticonderoga. They will next march in the Lincoln Fourth of July parade, starting at 10:40.

Afton White, a cheerful red-headed nine-year-old in Concord and corps member since February, declared, “It’s pretty good. I like both marching and the fife!” He and his seven-year-old brother Jackson wanted to join after the family happened upon a corps practice.

“It’s the best decision I ever made. It’s opened a whole new world,” said Sean Mahoney, a rising high school senior and seven-year member who travels from Ipswich weekly to Lincoln for practices. 

Bringing history alive

Sometimes there are as many as 30 members, according to Janel Blood, a fife instructor from Somerville who became active in the corps decades ago when she was in middle school in Lincoln. Today there are 11 members, as the corps is rebuilding after challenges during the COVID pandemic, when members could do little but practice on Zoom. “It’s hard to recruit without parades,” said Blood. 

Sean joined the corps after seeing a historical reenactment in Boston in 2018. Barbara Mahoney, Sean’s mother and the corps’ co-director, was happy to find the corps, which doesn’t involve musketry, instead focusing on camaraderie, music and marching lessons and other activities. Sean said it has strengthened his interest in history, especially the American Revolution. He is now involved in the reenactment community and might study history in college.

One former member is Walthamite Misha Kraytman, now studying international relations at American University. Camping inside Fort Ticonderoga was a highlight for him.

“It was living history,” he said. “Living it was a new way to look at things.” 

He recalled his fifth-grade teacher’s unit on uniforms. Kraytman wore his uniform to school and described each element of it. A self-described history nerd, Kraytman said his involvement in the corps “gave me a deeper look … strengthened my like of history, which strengthened my interest in politics, which is my life interest.”

Blood noted many advantages of the corps, which encourages members to develop projects, such as burning a CD of their music a few years ago, to choose their music and to feel a responsibility for one another. She praised the corps for getting kids to “put down their phones for a bit, problem-solve, think critically.”

Dues are $60; instruction and much of the uniforms and instruments are provided. Information about joining the corps is available on its website.