One Lucky Drummer Wins $6,000 In Prizes & Opportunity to Perform with Blue Man Group

BMG Drum Off 2015

Blue Man Group Boston is hosting their third annual Drum-Off competition to find the most creative, talented drummers in the Greater Boston area. This year’s finals will be held July 16 at 1:00 pm on the Main Stage as part of the Outside the Box Festival on Boston Common. The winner will receive over $6,000 in prizes from Blue Man Group, DW, Sabian, Vic Firth and AT&T.

The call for entries are open now through Tuesday, June 21 at midnight. Interested drummers are required to film two videos: a 1-2 minute solo jam session on a standard drum set and a 1-2 minute session accompanying either a live band or recorded music. Visit BlueMan.com/BostonDrumOff to fill out the entry submission and upload the videos.

The selection panel, which is made of our own Blue Man Group Boston musicians and Blue Men, will select a group of semi-finalist from the submitted videos. Drummers will be assessed on the following criteria- musicality, ensembleship, creativity and technical ability. The committee will notify semi-finalists on Friday, June 24 and they will be invited to perform a live 3-minute session on Monday, June 27 from 6-10 pm at the Charles Playhouse.

The selected finalists will each perform a 2-minute session in front of the lively Outside the Box crowd on July 16. The judges and audience will determine the Grand Prize winner and the winner will do an encore performance with Blue Man Group Boston.

"To celebrate our 25th anniversary this year, we decided to include all the finalists in a rehearsal process so that the winner can then perform with Blue Man Group during the finals at the Outside the Box Festival," said Jonathan Screnci, Resident General Manager, Blue Man Group Boston. "As a drummer myself, this is one of my favorite events we host and a great opportunity for Blue Man Group to engage with and showcase local talent."

Blue Man Group Boston recently hired Kyle Harris, a drummer from Boston, who competed as a Finalist in the 2015 Drum-Off. Kyle has played the drums for 17 years and was a member of the Penn State Drumline. He is the founder of Boston Drum Lessons, an organization that offers in-person and online drum lessons for people of all ages. In addition to his Blue Man Group duties, Kyle also performs with multiple Boston-area bands including That One Eyed Kid, Colorgrave, The Timberfakes and Ben Levin Group.

BLUE MAN GROUP BOSTON DRUM OFF DETAILS

  • Applications due: Tuesday, June 21 at midnight
  • Semi-finalist notification: Friday, June 24
  • Semi-final Round: Monday, June 27 from 6-10 pm, Charles Playhouse
  • Finalists rehearsal #1: Tuesday, June 28 from 6-10 pm, Charles Playhouse
  • Finalists rehearsal #2: Thursday, July 14 from 1-5 pm, Charles Playhouse
  • Final Round: Saturday, July 16 at 1 pm at Outside the Box Festival, Boston Common

ABOUT BLUE MAN GROUP

In 2016, global entertainment phenomenon Blue Man Group celebrates 25 years of living in full color with a series of new projects and appearances. The company is best known for the award-winning Blue Man Group show, performed in more than 15 countries and seen by more than 35 million people worldwide since 1991. A dynamic combination of music, comedy and technology, the show appeals to a broad range of age groups and cultural backgrounds. It is continually refreshed with new music, fresh stories, custom instruments and state-of-the-art technology.

The company developed through a creative collaboration among three close friends, Chris Wink, Phil Stanton and Matt Goldman on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Blue Man Group now has permanent theatrical productions in Las Vegas, Orlando, Boston, Chicago, New York and Berlin, a North American tour and a World Tour.

This creative collective is part of the pop culture zeitgeist. Beyond the stage show, they have toured the globe with the “Megastar World Tour” rock concert parody, released multiple albums, including the Grammy-nominated Audio, and the recently released, THREE, and contributed to numerous film and TV scores. They've served as the face of branding campaigns for Intel and TIM/Brasil and appeared countless times on hit shows like “The Tonight Show”, "Arrested Development", “Ellen”, “Schlag den Raab” (Germany), “WOWOW” (Japan), and “Caldeirão do Huck” (Brasil).

Based in New York City, Blue Man Productions has extensive production facilities, recording studios and a 6,000 square foot Research & Development Lab with numerous new creative projects in the pipeline.