Douglas Thrower

Music

Brought up in the Canadian drum corps scene, Douglas Thrower started his drum corps career at the age of 11 with his hometown corps, the Krescendos from Peterborough, Ontario, before joining the Seneca Optimists.

Turning his focus to education, Thrower enjoyed a long and successful career as a brass instructor and arranger for a number of Canadian drum corps, including the 1986 DCI Class A Champion Canadian Knights, Kiwanis Kavaliers, Cardinals, and the 1990 DCI finalist Dutch Boy.

It was in 1992 that Thrower came to the Bluecoats as a brass instructor before being promoted to brass caption head the following year. In this position he worked to create with others a distinctive Bluecoats sound, aided in 1997 when he added brass arranging duties to his resume.

Thrower stepped away from day-to-day instruction of the Bluecoats brass section in the early 2000s to focus more on his arranging. Over nearly three decades with the corps his presence has been critical to its success.

Thrower was inducted into the Bluecoats Hall of Fame in 2009 and the DCI Hall of Fame in 2019.