2024 Brass Staff
.jpg)
Mike Tanzos
Brass Caption Head
Returning for his 3rd Season as Brass Caption Head in 2024, Michael Tanzos has been involved with Drum Corps for the past 14 years. Starting out as a member of Reading Buccaneers in 2009, Michael went on to march in the Cadets in 2010 & 2011, winning a DCI World Championship. After his marching career, he went on to teach brass at Bushwackers, Cadets2, and the Reading Buccaneers. Michael is currently the Instrumental Director at Whitehall High School. He graduated from Nazareth High School and earned his Music Education degree from Kutztown University.
Brand Davis
Trumpet Technician
Brand is a skilled marching band technician, working with many great programs across central and southeast Pennsylvania such as Red Land, West Shore, Conestoga Valley, WC Rustin, WC East and Hempfield. He received a bachelor’s degree in Music Performance at West Chester University.
He began his drum corps career with the Hawthorne Caballeros, marching there for the 2009-2012 seasons and was a soloist at Hawthorne from 2015-2018. He spent the 2013 and 2014 seasons with the Cadets, where he played lead trumpet, and aged out as a soloist in 2014. Bringing over a decade in marching experience to the table, Brand is excited to be working with a great team of educators.
Daniel Higgins
Mellophone Technician
Daniel returns for his 5th season on the Buccaneers staff, this time as mellophone technician, previously serving as the tuba technician. He began his drum corps career with the Buccaneers in 2013 as a tuba player and has since become a regular member of the brass educational team. When not teaching drum corps, Daniel works regularly with high school marching bands, concert programs, and jazz ensembles. He holds a music education degree from West Chester University where he continued to develop his tuba performance and educational skills. Daniel’s educational work with drum corps includes Cadets2 (2017), The Reading Buccaneers (2018-2020, 2023-2024), and Fusion Core (2021). He is looking forward to The Buccaneers returning to the football field as we prepare for the 2024 season.
Chris Cropper
Baritone Technician
Chris Cropper is entering his second year as the Brass Tech for the Baritone section. Before switching to the teaching side, Chris spent the years of 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2022 as a Horn line member with the Buccaneers. He also spent the 2017 summer with the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps as a baritone member. In addition, Chris has taught marching band since 2018, starting with the North Penn Marching Knights and now is currently the Wind Music Caption Head with the CBSouth Marching Titans.
Chris Liounis
Tuba Technician