Christian A. Camerota

The Fife and Drum Corps meets at the Elks Lodge in Groton once a week on Mondays to practice and performs at approximately 45 events every year, according to the group’s director, Terrie Lamb. The corps currently has 18 members, ranging in age from 9 to 18, with younger members usually starting on fife and then moving on to the snare or the bass drum as their talents progress.

“We are most concerned with the children becoming lifelong musicians,” Lamb said. “The way we teach is by handing the music down from generation to generation.”

The corps began in 1948 at the Poquonnock Bridge Fire Department and played there until moving to the Elks Lodge in 1964, where it has met ever since. Lamb has been a member for 23 years, beginning as a performer and then moving on to her current role as the group’s instructor and organizer.

“Terrie is a complete disciplinarian in the best way,” said Vilma Gregoropoulos of North Stonington. “The kids really respond to it and respect her.”

Gregoropoulos has two children, Nizhoni Brown, 15, and Noah Brown, 10, who have been members of the Fife and Drum Corps since September of 2007. Noah first brought up the idea because he had a strong desire to be a drummer, but both of her children love being part of the group.

“It is very nice socially, because all the kids are very friendly,” Gregoropoulos said. “Nine- and 15-year-olds don’t usually get to interact otherwise.”

To join, children must be between the ages of 9 and 15 and must pay a yearly fee of $25. Their membership entitles them to sheet music, costumes for performances, instruments (drum pads and sticks for drummers, plastic practice fifes for fifers), and Lamb’s instruction, which Gregoropoulos believes far outweighs the cost.

To prove her point, Gregoropoulos said her daughter, Nizhoni, played flute in her school’s band previously. After joining the Fife and Drum Corps, she decided to leave the band because the great musical education and the fun she was having with the corps was more than enough.

“What they’re teaching the children is way more sophisticated than what they’re getting in band or elsewhere,” Gregoropoulos said.

The fife and drum corps plays at a variety of events around the state. The two most notable are an open invitation muster in Deep River on the third Saturday in July (an event that attracts fife and drum groups from around the world), and a muster in Westbrook on the fourth Saturday in August that is by invitation only.

They are also the official greeters for cruise ships that dock in New London and have gained some notoriety for this role. This past fall, they met Governor M. Jodi Rell at one of their performances and had the chance to tour one of the ship’s bridges.

“The people on the cruises are all very impressed,” Gregoropoulos said of the corps’ performances in New London. “It’s something they don’t see anywhere else and it really sets the city apart.”

Lamb said the corps is actively recruiting new students to join, as well as trying to find funding for a new bus. Their old bus has been out of commission since 2004, and the group has been caravanning ever since.

“Most of our favorite memories [were] on the bus traveling to or from one of our many performances,” the corps’ Web site proclaims. “Jam sessions, pillow fights, ‘bus surfing,’ sing-alongs, and long talks in the back of the bus about life and our futures” highlighted the good times.

Lamb said caravanning works well but “fragments the camaraderie” of the group. She also said it can be difficult on the drivers when their passengers start blowing fifes close to their ears.

Still, this has not prevented the group from traveling to places like the Maine Lobster Festival and Williamsburg, Va. They even traveled to Epcot Center in Florida in 1996, and Lamb hopes these kinds of traditions continue through her own efforts and the cooperation of its members and their parents.

This article appeared in the Groton Times and is available for online viewing here: http://zip06.theday.com/blogs/groton_times/archive/2009/02/18/sounding-the-call-nutmeg-fife-and-drum-corps-is-recruiting.aspx

For more information, call Terrie Lamb at 446-8626 or recruiter Vilma Gregoropoulos at 535-1677 or email nutmegfifedrum@aol.com.