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Oregon drumline preps for national competition: ‘You have to have fun or you’re not doing it rig

Published April 11, 2024 at 8:20 AM CDT
Grant Lord (right) plays with the snare drummers of the Kingsmen Thunder Drumline at Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie, Oregon. (Courtesy of René Ormae-Jarmer)
Grant Lord (right) plays with the snare drummers of the Kingsmen Thunder Drumline at Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie, Oregon. (Courtesy of René Ormae-Jarmer)

High school drumlines from around the country are gearing up for one of the biggest competitions of their lives.

Here & Now’s Deepa Fernandes meets one of the bands going to the Percussion World Championships in Ohio for the first time. She speaks with René Ormae-Jarmer, director of the Kingsmen Thunder Drumline at Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie, Oregon, and one of the drumline’s snare drummers, Grant Lord.

Watch on YouTube.

Grant Lord is a snare drummer for the Kingsmen Thunder Drumline at Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie, Oregon. (Courtesy of René Ormae-Jarmer)

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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