Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes & Drums ensemble is available for parades, concerts, and special events of every sort in many configurations, tailored to meet your needs:
The Fifes & Drums are a marching musical ensemble of fifers, snare and bass drummers accompanied by a ceremonial Color Guard. The impact of the formal 18th century uniform and precise maneuvering will give your audiences a sight they won’t soon forget.
When the very hot weather makes the wearing of wigs and heavy wool rather…well…unhealthy, we appear in a cooler uniform that features a custom made sleeveless coat, straw hat and some elements of our full dress uniform.
If your event is threatened by wet weather, we don our hunting frocks, rain hats, and continue on despite the monsoon.
We can also offer the services of our Middlesex Chamber Players for your event if the fifes and drums would be too LOUD. The Chamber Players consist of MCV fifers playing fifes and bass fifes and can appear in custom Chamber Players uniform or concert black.
MCV is very comfortable performing in major entertainment productions, as proved by our well-received feature performances at: 2007 Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the 2009 and 2015 Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo, the 2010 Edinburgh Military Tattoo Salute to Australia , the 2011 Sweden International Tattoo, the 2012 Basel Tattoo and the 2018 Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The entire ensemble is available to perform at any venue either in the United States or overseas.
We are frequently called upon to present full-length narrated concerts, either indoors or out. A regular event is our 90 minute outdoor concert sponsored by the Boston Harborfest each July, and we frequently trek south to Colonial Williamsburg for concerts and special events. 2017 had MCV performing at several high-profile events during Sail Boston. MCV regularly collaborates with the Boston Pops Orchestra as featured artists at both Symphony Hall and the Hatch Shell in Boston and have appeared at Tanglewood. MCV also performs regularly with The Boston Camerata, a world-famous early music ensemble. Performances with the Camerata have been in Boston, Lexington and Paris & Strasbourg, France. MCV presented a well received Fall concert of fife & drum music on October 27, 2019 in historic Concord, Massachusetts.
Your work was inspiring and musically rewarding for both the orchestra and the audience…”
John Williams, Laureate Conductor, Boston Pops Orchestra – August 2000
Special EventsWe also provide smaller ensembles appropriate to special events, especially those indoors. A quartet comprising three fifes and a drum is perfect to welcome conference attendees to a reception or symposium, or to lead your guests from a reception to dinner. Historic uniforms, historic music, all here in historic Boston. Just please remember that even a single drum played indoors is very LOUD!
Dressed in the uniform of George Washington’s Continental Infantry, the color guard escorts historical flags with period weapons. This dignified section can be booked separately from the Fifes & Drums, and is most appropriate for dedication ceremonies, or for the Honor Division of parades, accompanied by a drummer if desired.
For more information contact us today to discuss booking the ensemble.
