Downey marches to success with Sibelius Software

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Wayne Downey is Music Director of the eleven-time Drum Corps International (DCI) Champion Concord Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps. Under his supervision as arranger and teacher, the Blue Devils’ brass section has been awarded the Jim Ott Memorial Trophy for “Excellence in Brass Performance” a record-setting 20 times – more than any other brass sections in the history of DCI.

One of the finest brass clinicians and arrangers in the world, Downey enjoys an active teaching schedule as arranger and musical consultant with the Tony® and Emmy® Award-winning show Blast, the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) Champions the Syracuse Brigadiers, as well as many other high school and college programs. As a program consultant, he has guided the Lassiter (Ga.) High School Band and the Westfield (Texas) H.S. Band to the Bands of America Grand National Championship.

A key component of his success is Sibelius 4 notation software. “Sibelius 4 is the best notation software available in the world,” says Downey. “It’s really helped me creatively as both an arranger and composer.”

“I'm so blown away with so many of Sibelius’ features it's almost impossible to choose a favorite,” continues Downey. “Dynamic Parts is truly magnificent! It saves me hours and hours of time not having to reformat the parts for my stage shows, marching band, jazz band arrangements or film scores every time I make a change in their respective scores.  It's flexibility in formatting is truly amazing.”

Downey was inducted into the DCI Hall of Fame in 1991 for his contributions to the Drum & Bugle Corps activity as the musical director for the Blue Devils. Before joining the Blue Devils, he served as Marching Band Director of the San Jose State University Marching Spartans and Conductor/Coordinator for the Sugar Bowl, Gator Bowl and Orange Bowl halftimes.

Additionally, Downey has served as an arranger/composer for Jenson Publications, Warner Bros./Columbia Pictures Publishing and Arrangers Publishing Co. He co-authored State of the Art Ensemble Techniques for Marching Band and Yamaha Corporation of America’s curriculum for its “Sounds of Summer” percussion camps.

Most currently, Downey has brought his many years of experience to Blast II “Cyberjam” as musical director, arranger and a member of its creative team. Along with fellow arranger Jim Prime, the League of American Theatres and Producers nominated Downey in the “Best Score” (Orchestrations) category for the National Broadway Theater Awards for the touring production of Blast. Other recent accomplishments include scoring instrumental cues for 20th Century Fox’s film production of The First 20 Million is Always the Hardest and Universal Pictures’ American Pie: Band Camp.

“As a composer and arranger Sibelius has in so many ways freed my hands from the tedious tasks that other music programs have imposed on us in the industry for many years. I have found that Sibelius is truly my new ‘creative collaborator.’  It has aided me in both my educational music publishing as well as the movie instrumental cues that I have scored.”

To date, there are more than 100,000 Sibelius users worldwide, including television composer Alf Clausen, musician Pat Metheny, composer Sammy Nestico, choral composer John Rutter, guitarist Andy Summers and conductor Michael Tilson-Thomas.

Notes to editors

• Sibelius is the world's market leader in music notation software.

• Sibelius was founded in 1993 by Ben and Jonathan Finn to sell music notation software for the Acorn computer. The Sibelius notation software was released for Windows and Mac in 1998/99.
• Since then the Sibelius Group has developed 11 music products for the professional, educational and home user, ranging from Internet publishing to guitar software.

• Sibelius has customers in over 100 countries.

• Sibelius is used in 50% of schools in the UK , Australia and New Zealand.
• Sibelius is endorsed by the Royal Academy of Music and is used by all the major music academies and colleges: The Royal College of Music, Trinity College of Music, The Juilliard School, Berklee School of Music, The Sibelius Academy in Finland , The Royal College of Music in Stockholm
• The world's leading music publishers, including Music Sales and Hal Leonard, all use Sibelius technology
• Sibelius is headquartered in London , UK , with a US subsidiary, Sibelius USA Inc., in Walnut Creek , California and a new Australian subsidiary, Sibelius Australia Pty Ltd, based in Adelaide.