Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Kriska.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I originally founded the organization in 2018. The idea was a spin-off of a sister organization, Charles Towne Independent which has a focus on Color guard/dance performing arts. Charles Towne Percussion is now free-standing and is a focused percussive arts entity. We are the only organization of its kind within the entire low country area including Wilmington, Myrtle Beach, and Savannah.
Each year we audition students, set their roles and instruments, and begin production on a show for performance and competition. It’s a huge balancing act, not only do we have to stay competitive to keep interested alive and do well in a national spotlight, we have to also keep true to our ideology that locally we are teaching students to make them better percussionists, performers, musicians, and people.
When we do compete, it is governed by large circuits (much like how the Olympic Games host athletes). These circuits are local and national. Our local circuit is the Carolina Winter Ensemble Association (CWEA) and our national circuit is Winter Guard International (WGI). The year culminates with a trip to the International Championships, held in Dayton, OH.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’ve been involved in the marching arts for almost 20 years ranging from Marching band, Drum Corps, and Winter Indoor Percussion. When I moved to Charleston, I saw a huge void in the activity here, especially for young percussionists and performers. The opportunity for them to grow and develop just doesn’t exist. Although there are a few exceptional public high school marching band programs, the vast majority of percussion students receive little to no instruction. I say this of course specifically relating to marching percussion. I decided to take on the opportunity and founded Charles Towne Percussion. It has been an extremely difficult process, so far. Not only are we trying to spread marching education throughout this area, but we are also doing it while taking the few existing students there are and maximizing their potential. It’s like trying to build a house on top of a foundation while it’s still being set. The pandemic hit us very hard, but we managed to navigate through it financially. We were even able to compete virtually and won an international competition. Now for the 2022 season, we are back at competitive strength, but in many ways, it feels like we’ve started back at square one.
We constantly face a double-edged sword that I, as the director, must continually try and split evenly. On one hand, we have to audition students down so that we can compete with the cream of the crop and be competitive. If we aren’t successful in that, students lose interest and don’t want to waste their time and energy. On the other hand, it’s difficult to promote growth when you audition down an ensemble to highly competitive strength. So much potential gets lost when students “don’t make the cut”. We aren’t maximizing our educational outreach at that point. But then again, we don’t have the resources yet to accommodate all those other students.
Overall, I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve built so far. The amount of support I’ve received from staff and parents has been beyond uplifting. From what I’ve seen, this organization has been a success so far in the Charleston community. But I want it to grow more. We need to impact more students and grow beyond the competitive aspect of the activity. Right now, the only students positively impacted are those with percussion experience in high school marching band, and then furthermore the desire to seek out and grow themselves to audition and be a part of the group. That is an extremely narrow sliver of society we have an outreach to, and I want to open the organization to be more beneficial to a wider range of students in music.
The biggest challenge we face is the facilities to pull off such an operation. As I’ve spread the outreach, we are now getting more people involved, which I couldn’t be more ecstatic about. But it’s hard to find a facility that allows the continuous banging of drums and percussion! We traditionally rehearse and perform our productions in public school gymnasiums. It’s the only space that can accommodate our size and scale. In a post-pandemic world, relations with public schools have become fragile. This is an issue that similar organizations all over the country face. The “helping hand for the greater good of young adults” attitude has given way to bureaucracy and policies that dominate schools’ systems now. At the beginning of the 2021-2022 season, I was in talks with some of the local school systems in Charleston. Although most gave us an outright “no” for permission, some stated it was because of the pandemic. During a further discussion with one particular school in the area, they considered overlooking the COVID protocols if we were to pay an astronomical amount for the use of their parking lot only. This confirmed to me that even though all our students come from public schools, looking for support from local schools was no longer ideal. Sadly, these are some of the same conditions our public-school teachers are faced with daily, encountering roadblocks and obstacles that prohibit growth.
With an operating budget of $20,000 annually, we can’t afford to spend any money on facilities until we expand. Fortunately, a local church opened its doors to us this year and allowed us some space to be able to put on our production as best we can. Ideally, over the next couple of years, I would like to purchase a warehouse, garage, or similar space so the organization can have a permeant “home base.” This will allow us to dig in and expand operations. The goal is to provide a musical outlet for these students beyond the limited opportunities provided to them in local schools, and perhaps, inspire the next generation of teachers and musicians.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m currently working to expand my own business as a freelancer specializing in music and the marching activity in particular. I have almost 20 years of experience as a musician, performer, and now educator in the marching music arts. I would like to also continue to grow Charles Towne Percussion into a full-time endeavor to promote music education.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
By far, my favorite childhood memories are a reflection of what I do today. My life has always revolved around music from an early age, even from my elementary years of being involved with the church choir. One of my favorite memories is of my high school band director taking me under his wing and introducing me to new experiences in music, and specifically, the marching activity. I still remember the first time he sat me down to watch Drum and Bugle Corps(back then on VHS), and showed me what was possible to aspire to be the best you can be. I think subconsciously I’ve carried that with me forever, and it’s affected almost everything I’ve done in my life.
Contact Info:
- Email: charlestownepercussion@gmail.com
- Website: www.charlestownepercussion.org www.kriskamarchinginitiative.com
Image Credits
Christiana Porter
