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05/23/2018 08:30 AMBrendan Mason is one of those teachers who doesn't mind a noisy classroom.
Since 2012, Brendan has led the St. Mary’s School (SMS) Fife & Drum Corps and taught the historic instrumental form to all SMS students as the basis of the school’s music education program. So when it comes time to encourage kids to bang out rhythms on bass and snare drums, pick out some notes on wooden fifes, or rehearse with the SMS Fife & Drum Corps, “it can get pretty loud in here,” says Brendan.
On Monday, May 28, members of the SMS Fife & Drum Corps will join Branford’s Memorial Day Parade. The group will perform at the ceremonies on the town green at 10 a.m. and step off with the parade on Main Street at 10:30 a.m.
That’s not the only local musical group in Branford’s Memorial Day parade with which Brendan is connected. In addition to teaching three days a week at SMS and leading the SMS Fife & Drum Corps, for the past four years, Brendan has instructed with the storied Stony Creek Fife & Drum Corps. His Branford-based work is only the tip of the iceberg in what is a very busy, quite remarkable career as a percussionist and music instructor.
“I’m kind of all over the state, as far as teaching,” says Brendan, who also teaches with the Col. John Chester Drum Corps, Connecticut Patriots Drum Corps, Connecticut Hurricanes Drum and Bugle Corps, and the 7th Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps. He’s also assistant band director for Jonathon Law High School in Milford and instructs the percussion section of the Cheshire High School Marching Band, his high school alma mater.
Beyond teaching all around this state, Brendan also has instructed at some very special programs across the United States and Europe; including the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) International Convention in Indianapolis and The Royal Marine School of Music in Portsmouth, U.K. This week, he’s teaching drumming and percussion in a series of clinics and master classes in and around Beijing, China.
“They have percussion outreach programs where they bring in other artists and people from all over the world to share their culture, and I was asked to do that this year,” says Brendan, who will teach at a youth festival and at the China Conservatory for Music, among other scheduled events.
It’s an exciting opportunity to connect through the universal language of music, he adds.
“All of the [students] are percussionists, but I don’t know what their level of knowledge is of what I’m going to be bringing to the table,” he says. “It’s going to be interesting! It’s my first time going to China, so this will be whole new thing for me.”
Setting Out Early
Brendan’s first connections with music stretch back to drumming as a youngster. Percussion has struck a chord with him ever since.
“I started when I was six years old with the Col. John Chester Drum Corps in Wethersfield,” says Brendan, adding this type of ensemble music runs in the family. “My parents met through fife and drum corps, and I have two brothers and a sister, and they were all in fife and drum corps. I played all kinds of instruments in college and can teach them, but percussion is my thing.”
Brendan was just nine years old when he became the youngest drummer to hold The Dan English Trophy, as the Connecticut State Junior Snare Drum Champion.
In addition to teaching, Brendan is a member of the Connecticut Patriots Drum Corps and has performed with the Middlesex County Volunteers and The Top Secret Drum Corps of Basel, Switzerland. He’s toured both nationally and internationally and is a member of U.S. Association of Rudimental Drummers and National Association of Rudimental Drummers. He also serves on the Marching Committee for the Percussive Arts Society, the world’s largest percussion organization.
While many fife and drum corps in New England have a long history—Stony Creek Fife & Drum Corps was established in 1886—with the SMS Fife & Drum Corps, Brendan has been given the unique opportunity to establish the program. He thanks former St. Mary’s pastor Father Christopher Ford for creating the opportunity.
“It started with Father Ford, who was the pastor in 2012,” says Brendan. “A fife and drum corps from North Haven, Lancraft, came and did a presentation at an assembly here. Basically, he asked the kids if they wanted to start a fife and drum corps as a music program, and they did.”
In the narrow field of fife and drum and music education instructors, Brendan’s résumé stood out and he was delighted to take up the offer. He’s at the Pre-K to 8 school three days a week and rehearses weekly with the fife and drum corps.
“It is the school instrumental program, which is actually a pretty cool thing,” says Brendan. “This is a way to streamline [music education] then take those same tools to the next level in high school.”
As for the SMS Fife & Drum Corps, talented students have regularly marched to perform in annual parades around the state, including the Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade, for more than five years.
“I think some people might have thought we were nuts for trying to start a fife and drum corps,” says Brendan. “We started in [the fall] of 2012 and we had a group marching by Memorial Day. It was really incredible.”
As an interesting aside, Brendan notes, “There were a lot of fife and drum corps in Catholic schools—every Catholic school in 1920s and ’30s had fife and drum corps, particularly in this area.”
Thanks to Brendan’s connections in the percussion world, one reason SMS Fife & Drum Corps got up and running so quickly was due to inheriting its drums from another Catholic school.
“There was an all-girls Catholic school in the Bronx that had a fife and drum corps, and the school shut down, and they threw all those drums in a Dumpster,” says Brendan. “A friend of mine who lives in New York picked up all the drums and donated them to me [and] he refurbished the drums for us. So all the drums, which are worth about $600 to $800 apiece, were given to us.”
The wooden fifes are handmade for students at a reasonable rate by craftsman Brendan knows through his fife and drum connections. He also thanks others who have helped the program during the past six years.
“We’ve had a lot of people from the fife and drum community, and locally, just helping us out,” says Brendan.
Brendan is also grateful to his parent volunteers at SMS as well as volunteer instructor Matt Lyons.
“I’m lucky to have Matt come help me out and to have the parents help out, especially when I’m not able to be here [for parades]. I have a lot of support in that way,” says Brendan.
This year, the SMS Fife & Drum Corps is made up of 13 members.
“We’re smaller than we have been, but the kids we have right now are extremely talented,” says Brendan. “We also have alumni that come back and help us out and march with us or play with us. In the parades, we have additional [SMS] kids that carry banners and flags, so if you’re not ready on an instrument yet, you’re still able to be a part of it.”
The SMS Fife & Drum Corps’ growing reputation as an active junior troop often has Brendan fielding requests for performances. The group will march in the Middlefield Memorial Day Parade on May 27. Brendan says when scheduling allows, the members of SMS Fife & Drum Corps really enjoy getting out to perform around the state in this type of unique musical ensemble.
“It’s a little bit more than playing typical instruments, and it’s also giving them that experience of community outreach,” he says.