Pete Emmons

Pete Emmons is a Drill Designer for U.S. Drum & Bugle Corps. After marching with the The Troopers Drum And Bugle Corps from Casper, WY from 1957 to 1966, Pete Emmons continued his association with the drum corps activity teaching the Anaheim Kingsmen in 1967. In 1968 he and fellow Trooper Fred Sanford joined Gail R. Royer, beginning a collaboration that established the Santa Clara Vanguard as a drum corps powerhouse. Pete Emmons' involvement with SCV set the stage for a new generation of movement on the field. As a drill writer, Pete changed the look of drum corps forever, creating drill technique that evolved into a new world of creative shapes and movement. As a renowned drill designer of the ‘60s and ‘70s, he broke with tradition to introduce the asymmetrical drill. Pete Emmons broadened the scope of the drum corps drills and changed them to more of a choreographed style that made the group known as the Santa Clara Vanguard synonymous with the meaning of the word - Vanguard. That style, so revolutionary in the 1970s when the SCV pioneered it, evolved into what drum corps is today. The impact Pete made on drum corps and the Santa Clara Vanguard continues to this day.

Pete was inducted into the Drum Corps International (DCI) Hall Of Fame in 1989 and was named to the Santa Clara Vanguard Hall of Fame in 2013.