CCHS Alum Shea Pierce Named Visual Caption Head for Seattle Cascades

Shea Pierce, a 2011 graduate of Calloway County High School, has been selected as the Visual Caption Head for the Seattle Cascades Drum Corps for the 2024 season. 

The Seattle Cascades are a traveling all-star drum corps touring the country on a 13,000 mile tour. The Cascades are a non-profit youth organization for musicians up through age 21, typically with high school and college students. The group starts spring training in the northwest in June, tours the country for the summer, and ends with a performance at the Drum Corps International World Championships in Indianapolis in August.

Pierce is a freelance trombonist and a private lesson instructor in northwest Arkansas. He also serves numerous schools as an adjunct music instructor. For the past six years, Pierce has served as the Visual Caption Head and Band Choreographer for the Bentonville High School Marching Band, who finished ninth in the country at Grand National Finals in November, 2023.

As the Visual Caption Head, Pierce will be responsible for the visual instruction of the corps, through coordinating lesson plans for different instructors for the students during spring training. He will also serve as an instructor for students.

At CCHS, Pierce was in the Laker Band under the direction of Gary Mullins and Derek Jones, and was a co-drum major his junior and senior years of high school. He was also in the Murray State Racer Band in college, and graduated from MSU in 2016.

“The longer I've been away from Calloway, the more I’ve realized I had a special group of teachers,” said Pierce. “I was blessed to have a good friend group…and the band helped foster that.”

“I had some incredible teachers who would inspire me even outside of their content area - just to drive to be a better person and to live with higher ideals. Calloway is a cool place. There have been some kids from there that have gone on to do some special things.”

Pierce gives a lot of credit for his success in music to his parents, Roger and Vicki Pierce. 

“They were relentlessly supportive for me in high school in wanting to pursue music,” said Pierce.

He is also thankful for his music teachers who helped him as a young adult, specifically Anthony Darnall, who is now the band director at Christian County High School. Pierce was also influenced greatly at Murray State by Professor Ray Conklin, who passed away in 2018.

Pierce lives in Bentonville, AR with his wife, Emily, and their new baby boy, Sonny.