ERIC SHRIVER

Battery Arranger and Ensemble Coordinator

Eric Shriver is a composer, arranger, and educator for percussion based out of Southern California. He is currently the Percussion Director and Battery Arranger for Etiwanda HS, Rancho Cucamonga HS, POW Percussion, and Pacific Crest Drum & Bugle Corps

Previously, Eric has been: Percussion Director at Gold Drum & Bugle Corps, Snare Tech for The Cavaliers, Percussion Caption Head and Battery Arranger for the Blue Stars, Snare Tech for the Bluecoats, and Battery/Ensemble Coordinator with Pulse Percussion.

Eric has a Bachelor of Arts in Music (Industry Studies) from California Polytechnic University (Pomona, CA). Eric has performed with the Bluecoats, Pulse Percussion, Black Knights, Pacific Crest, and RCC Marching Band.

Eric is a Co-Owner of Front2BackMusic.com, and also the creator and owner of the “The Build-Up Method,” which is a set of rudimental percussion practice methods using logical skill building exercises and audio tracks.

Eric is a member of the Zildjian, Remo, Yamaha, and Vic Firth educational teams and lives in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, with his Wife Amanda and Daughter Charlotte.

JOHN MAPES

Program Coordinator

John is on the design team with POW and Pulse Percussion. He is a full-time percussion designer and educator in Southern California since 2000. He received his Bachelor of Arts in percussion from California State University Long Beach in the spring of 2000.

He has been the Percussion Director at Chino Hills HS since 2005 and was director of percussion at Pacifica HS from 2000-2011. John joined the design team for the Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps as the battery arranger from 2013-2016. Previously, he worked with the Blue Devil B Corps as the percussion arranger from 2007-2012 and was the Battery Arranger/ Percussion Caption Head for the Esperanza Drum & Bugle Corps from San Diego, CA from 2002-2006. His marching experience includes Velvet Knights and Pacific Crest Drum & Bugle Corps organizations.

John is a Vic Firth Signature artist, a Yamaha artist, a Remo artist, a Zildjian artist and a WGI Percussion Steering Committee/Advisory Board member. He is also a co-founder of Box-Six.com, a website compiling original indoor percussion and marching band shows with fellow composer Ian Grom.

Trent Gronewold

Front Ensemble Arranger

Trent is a full-time percussion arranger and educator from Southern California. He is currently studying Music Composition for Film and TV at Berklee College of Music. He is the Front Ensemble Arranger for POW Percussion, and Front Ensemble Caption Head at Chino Hills High School. Trent ran and designed for the percussion program at Gahr High School from 2017-2024. He has also been on staff at Pulse Percussion since 2022. Previously, he was the Front Ensemble Arranger for Pacific Crest (2023-2024), and Gold Drum and Bugle Corps (2021-2022). 

Since 2016, Trent has been working behind the scenes for music publishing company Box Six, assisting with front ensemble arranging. In 2020, he began writing and publishing indoor percussion shows with John Mapes. He also has his music published on Front2Back music and Standing O Marching.

His marching experience includes the Santa Clara Vanguard (2018), Pulse Percussion (2016-2020), and Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps (2015-2016). Trent is also a member of the Vic Firth and Zildjian Educational Team.

Anthony Clark

Visual Design

Anthony Clark is a full time visual designer and educator. Living in Rancho Cucamonga, California, Anthony has devoted the majority of his adult life to pageantry arts. He has been involved in the pageantry arts world for over 15 years as a member, educator, designer, and adjudicator for groups and circuits across the country.

Anthony has provided visual design for multiple programs, both for field ensembles and indoor percussion ensembles. He currently is the visual designer for Etiwanda High School and Los Osos High School, as well as various other programs throughout the country.

Anthony also has much experience teaching in the Southern California area, teaching multiple ensembles throughout the years. He currently serves as the Visual Caption Head for Etiwanda High School and Los Osos High School. Anthony also has taught at the independent level for many years, previously serving as the Visual Caption Manager at Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps (2022-2025).

NOE GOMEZ

Visual Consultant

Noe is a lifelong resident of Los Angeles, California and prolific educator and designer within the marching arts. He has over seven years of performance experience, including Impulse, Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets, and half of a decade with the Santa Clara Vanguard, where he served as drum major from 2012 to 2015. 

Noe is immersed in the upper echelons of the marching arts, as he is a full time visual designer, judge, and clinician for both high school bands and independent programs. Noe serves on the visual and drum major education team of the Santa Clara Vanguard. He is on the design team at POW Percussion, Gold Indoor Percussion and Arcadia HS where he is currently the Visual Caption Manager at Arcadia High School. Noe also serves as an advisor to the Color Guard Alliance of the Philippines and Impulso Marching Latino America.

Learn more at:  noegomezproductions.com and on Instagram: @noegomez.productions

Christian Blydt-Hansen

Battery & Staff Coordinator

Christian graduated from California State University Long Beach receiving a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. He currently resides in Riverside, CA, working full time as a Software QA Lead.

Christian has performed with Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps, Dark Sky Percussion, Pulse Percussion, and the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps. He currently performs with Sidle Entertainment, the LA Chargers Thunderbolts Drumline, and the LA Kings Drumline. Christian has previously worked with Fountain Valley High School, Redondo Union High School, Santiago High School, and Gold Drum and Bugle Corps. Christian currently works with Pacific Crest and POW Percussion.

Whitney Taylor

Front Ensemble Coordinator

Whitney graduated from the University of Southern California with her Bachelor’s in Health & Human Sciences with a focus in psychology. She currently works at a tech startup in Irvine as the Head of Growth & Marketing.

Whitney has performed with Pulse Percussion (2016-2020), Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps (2016), and the Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps (2018).  

For the last decade, she has worked as a private piano instructor in South Orange County and as a front ensemble tech at various high school programs. She is a member of the Vic Firth & Zildjian educational team. 

Adam Sanchez

Battery Coordinator

Adam is a musician and percussion educator based in Fullerton, CA. Adam is currently on staff at POW Percussion, Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps, Etiwanda High School, and is the percussion caption head at Los Osos High School. Adam's marching experience includes Bakersfield College indoor percussion, Golden Empire Drum and Bugle Corps, Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps, and Pulse Percussion. Adam also attended California State University Fullerton where he received his Bachelor's in Jazz and Commercial Music studies where he specialized in drum set performance. During this time Adam learned from Grammy award winning piano player Bill Cunliffe as well as Rodolfo Zuniga and Paul Kreibich.

OTTo Peralta

Battery Coordinator

Otto has been an active educator in Southern California for over 12 years, recently including Pacific Crest, Mira Costa HS and West HS. Otto’s previous marching experience includes Pulse Percussion, charter member of Pulse Open, Garfield independent, The Academy D&B Corps, and Gold D&B Corps.

George Collins

Ensemble Consultant

George has taught at various programs including Blue Stars, Gold, Meraki, Dark Sky and OCI. He is also co-host of The Drum Corps Coffee Shop podcast and has been a prolific creator of lot videos over the past several years.

Outside of the marching activity, George works as a literary manager representing writers primarily in the animated television space.

William Abraamyan

Snare Tech

Will is a marching percussion educator based out of Southern California, having taught at all levels in the activity, ranging from middle school to the world class level. He currently works with the Blue Knights and POW Percussion as a snare tech. As a member, Will has performed with the Santa Clara Vanguard, Vanguard Cadets, POW Percussion, Pulse Percussion, and the Marching Vlogs All-Star Drumline.

Koji Nakatani

Snare Tech

Koji’s marching experience includes Impulse DBC (2017), Instinct Percussion (2020), Dark Sky Percussion (2021-2022), The Blue Devils (2022-2023), and Pulse Percussion (2023-2024). As an educator, Koji has taught at Sunny Hills High School since the Fall of 2024, and taught the Blue Devils B Snareline in 2024 and 2025. Outside of drumming, Koji is on track to graduate from UC Irvine after summer 2025 with a degree in Economics.

Sebastian Martinez

Snare Tech

Sebastian is an active performer, educator, and arranger for many programs around the country. Originally from Petal, Mississippi, he now resides in Southern California, and is currently a battery instructor at Gahr HS, Cypress HS, and the Mandarins.

Sebastian's performing experience includes the Bluecoats (2019-2023), Pulse Percussion (2022, 2024), and Monarch Independent (2020). He also received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Mathematics from Mississippi State University, and he is also a proud endorser of Vic Firth and Zildjian.

Gabriel Michels

Tenor Tech

Gabriel is a musician and composer living in Fullerton CA. Having received his degree in music by studying composition at UCSD, he currently writes and teaches percussion for various high schools while also pursuing his own independent musical projects. Gabriel performed with multiple groups including Pacific Crest, The Blue Devils, POW Percussion, and Pulse Percussion. He also has experience teaching with independent ensembles including Élan Percussion and Dark Sky Percussion for the 2024 indoor percussion season, and Blue Devils B for the 2024 drum corps season.

Danny Ortiz

Tenor Tech

Danny is a musician and educator from Fullerton, CA. His performance experience includes his high school at Troy HS ‘16-‘20, Elan Percussion ‘22, POW Percussion ‘23, and Broken City Percussion ‘24. This is also Danny’s 2nd year as a battery technician at his alma mater, Troy HS in Fullerton.

Danny also recently graduated from UCR with a B.S. in Bioengineering and currently works as an EMT on the CHOC Emergency Transport team, and strives to continue to pursue his passion in healthcare and medicine.

Ryan Kitagawa

Tenor Tech

Ryan graduated from UC Riverside with a Bachelor's degree in Statistics and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Statistics at UCR. Ryan’s marching career started at Cupertino High School from 2017-2021, and includes SCVC 2019-2020, VES/SEL 2021, Pacific Crest 2021, POW 2022, Bluecoats 2022-2024 and Pulse 2023-2025. Ryan seasonally teaches at Mountain View High School and Cupertino High School when he is home in San Jose, CA.

Reid Shimabukuro

Bass Tech

Originally from Northern California, Reid moved to the Orange County area to pursue a degree in Computer Animation and Game Art at CSU Fullerton.

During these studies Reid continued his marching career. He marched with the drum corps Vanguard Cadets and Pacific Crest, as well as the indoor percussion groups Meraki, Dark Sky, and RCC, aging out with the latter in 2024.

As an educator Reid is currently on the visual team at Bell Gardens High School and the percussion team at North Torrance High School. He was also a bass instructor at Élan Percussion for the 2025 season and is now excited to contribute to the POW Percussion team!

jack Wurth

Cymbal Tech

Jack has been teaching in the So-Cal area since 2019; most recently at West Torrance HS. Jack taught at Gold Drum & Bugle Corps (21,22) and Gold Indoor (23) before his time with POW. His marching experience includes Pacific Crest, Mandarins, Dark Sky, and RCC.

Luis Raul Rodriguez Botiller

Cymbal Tech

Luis is originally from Phoenix, Arizona. He has performed in various groups such as Breakthrough Indoor Percussion, the Sun Devil Marching Band at Arizona State University, and at POW Percussion in ‘24 and ‘25. Luis is currently pursuing a degree in Music Education with a focus on French Horn performance from Arizona State University.

Luis has previously taught a couple of groups including the fall and winter programs at Gilbert High School and also at the Roberto Paz Clinic in Arizona.

Christian Do

Front Ensemble Staff, Co-Coordinator

Christian was raised in Fountain Valley, CA where he took interest the marching arts, specializing in design, composition, and audio engineering.

Christian has worked with many HS programs over the years under various roles and previously worked as an audio engineer/front ensemble staff member at Pacific Crest ('19-'24), front ensemble arranger at Golden Empire ('23-'24), and front ensemble staff member at Mandarins ('25). As a performer, he has marched at POW Percussion ('15), at Pulse Percussion ('16,'17,'19), and at Pacific Crest ('18). He was also the recipient of the Southern California Percussion Alliance Composition Scholarship in 2016.

Currently, he serves as the percussion coordinator at Rancho Alamitos HS, audio manager at Gahr HS, front ensemble coordinator at Ross MS and as a show designer/music arranger for various groups in Southern California. He is also member of the Zildjian and Vic Firth educational team.

Leela Whatley

Front Ensemble Staff

Leela is from San Diego, CA, and now resides in Santa Barbara, CA. She currently studies Pharmacology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She also works as an audio engineer at Ensemble Theatre Company, Santa Barbara’s sole professional Equity theatre company. Her staff experience includes Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps as a sound engineer in 2024, and has worked in the past at Great Oak High School as a mallet tech and Esperanza High School as the front ensemble caption head. This will be her second year on staff at POW.

Leela performed with multiple ensembles during her marching career, including Gold Drum and Bugle Corps (2018-2019), POW Percussion (2020-2022), Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps (2022), Pulse Percussion (2023-2024), and Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps (2023).

Shirley Taylor

Front Ensemble Staff

Shirley Taylor is a piano pedagogue and percussion educator based in Southern California. She is currently a front ensemble instructor at Rancho Cucamonga HS and Etiwanda HS, and has run her private piano studio since 2018.

Shirley received her Bachelor of Music in Piano Pedagogy from California State University, Fullerton in 2022. Her marching arts experience includes performing with Pulse Percussion (2019-2022), and her piano background includes completion of all levels of the Certificate of Merit program, as well as medaling in MTAC OCW piano solo competitions, MTAC Bach Festivals, and MTAC state conventions. Shirley is also a member of the Vic Firth and Zildjian educational team.

Eric Ko

Front Ensemble Staff

Eric is from San Ramon, CA, and currently attends California State University, Northridge studying Percussion Performance. He also previously attended Pepperdine University, playing in their symphony orchestra as their principal player and timpanist. Eric is also the winner of the 2024 Thomas M. Osborn Concerto Competition. He intends to pursue performing as a career orchestral timpanist.

His experience outside of his high school marching band was Pacific Crest (2024) and POW Percussion (2025)

Eric has previously instructed at high schools in Northern California such as California HS and Livermore HS. He currently teaches down in Southern California at Calabasas HS, and is the front ensemble caption head at both Saugus HS and Arroyo HS

Jericho Swe

Front Ensemble Staff

Jericho is from Temecula, CA and is currently a computer science student at Orange Coast College. Their marching experience includes POW Percussion (‘22) and Pulse Percussion (‘23-‘25). They have been a mallet instructor at Great Oak HS since the winter of 2023 and has previously worked at Los Alamitos HS (2022 - 2025).

Zachary Novack

Front Ensemble Staff

Zachary is currently PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of California San Diego, researching the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Music, and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with his B.S. in Statistics and Machine Learning. His performance experience includes Stryke Percussion (2017-2018) and the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps (2017-2018). Zachary has previously taught and arranged for numerous groups around the country, including the Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps, Gateway HS, Tomball HS, Cooper City HS, and West Broward HS, and has had his multimedia compositions featured at BAMM and the Cannes film festival.

Chris Schmitz

Visual Staff, Coordinator

Chris Schmitz is a full-time drill writer, choreographer, and educator based in Southern California. His performance experience includes the Sacramento Mandarins and Blue Devils Entertainment. A native of Northern California, Chris has been based in Southern California the last four years, working at programs such as Rancho Cucamonga HS, El Dorado HS, Etiwanda HS, and Sunny HIlls HS, among others. He is currently the Visual Caption Head at POW Percussion and Visual Designer for Immortal Winds. In the Summer he is on staff at Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps, and was previously on staff at both Gold Drum and Bugle Corps and Gold Indoor Percussion, as well as Golden Empire Drum and Bugle Corps. Chris currently resides in Placentia, California, and studies Dance Education at Fullerton College.

Nicklous Chau

Visual Staff

Nick Chau is a visual coach & choreographer based in the Inland Empire. Since 2018, he has taught various high schools within SoCal and currently teaches at Chino Hills HS, Rancho Cucamonga HS, & POW Percussion. His performance experience includes Gold Drum & Bugle Corps (‘17), Mandarins Drum & Bugle Corps (‘18), & Pulse Percussion (‘19-‘22).

Nick is also an avid student for dance; training in a mix of hip-hop, house, contemporary fusion, & freestyle. He trains at various studios such as LMNL Space, Movement Lifestyle, Offstage by GRV, and is currently on the Voyage’s Training Division: Oasis, based in Orange. Through the art form, he has had the pleasure to learn from and exchange with many dancers & artists through out the community worldwide.

Nick is also one of the founders for SoCal MVT, which is a dance/movement-intensive workshop to help bring training & connection to the marching arts community.

Darrel Burns

Visual Staff

Darrel Burns is a visual specialist, drill writer and designer based in the San Diego area. He has been training and encouraging young performers in the SoCal band world since 2013, drawing upon experience gained from both Open and World Class ensembles (Velvet Knights, Academy, Blue Devils) paired with continued study in the areas of leadership, fitness and dance.

Darrel has proudly served several high schools and other ensembles throughout San Diego County and the Inland Empire, including Open Class Finalist Meraki Percussion, Dark Sky Percussion, and 6-time Open Class medalists Gold Drum and Bugle Corps.

While away from the floor or field, Darrel can be found snapping photos, studying or simply enjoying life with his wife Skyler and their two cats.

Andrew Fresquez

Visual Staff

Andrew Fresquez is an educator, clinician, and adjudicator based out of Southern California. He is currently the Associate Director of Instrumental Music at Westview High School in San Diego, California. This coming fall, Andrew will be attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to pursue a Master’s of Music in Wind Band Conducting, studying under Dr. Travis Cross.

Prior to his current appointments, Andrew was the band director at Vail Ranch Middle School in Temecula, California. He received his Bachelor’s of Music in Instrumental Performance on Bass Trombone at California State University, Fullerton, with an emphasis in Music Education. He has studied conducting under Dr. Gregory Whitmore and Dr. Jeff Malecki. 

Andrew has a plethora of teaching experience in California, Arizona and Nevada. He has given masterclasses on trombone, conducting, visual and marching sessions, and also ran several student leadership seminars. He is also an Assistant Visual Caption Manager at the Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps. At Pacific Crest, he also works on the educational team that hosts leadership camps, providing hands-on experience and workshops aimed at developing emerging student leaders.

Trevor Stojanovich

Visual Staff

Trevor Stojanovich is a full time visual designer and choreographer born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. Prior to his design career, Trevor was a band director at Silverado HS in Las Vegas, Nevada as well as Manor HS in Manor, Texas. Trevor earned his Bachelor's in Music Education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

As a performer, Trevor has performed with Gold, The Academy, Vegas Vanguard, The Blue Devils, and Vessel Indoor Percussion. As a visual educator, Trevor has been on staff with the Sacramento Mandarins, Gold, sage V Percussion, Pacific Crest, and Rhythmic Force Percussion. Trevor is currently the Visual Caption Head at the Blue Knights and has served in that role since the 2024 DCI season. Trevor is also currently the visual designer for the 2025 DCI All-Age World Class Silver Medalists, the Hawthorne Caballeros.