Earl Sturtze
1901-1984
In 1976 NARD published a pamphlet titled "Nominees For President NARD". Here is the entry that was written for Earl Sturtze.
"Earl S. Sturtze started his drumming career in Hamden, Conn. at the age of ten with a Fire Dept. Drum Corps which was organized by his father. His teacher was the late Carl Froehlich, who in turn was a pupil of the late J. Burns Moore.
Mr. Sturtze served in WW 2 with the 98th Div. Artillery Band. He has played with numerous bands and drum corps, but has made teaching his specialty.
Earl has taught many junior and senior state and national champion snare drummers, including your recent president, the late Frank Arsenault. He has also taught many champion Rudimental Bass Drummers and Drum Sections, and he himself has held state titles in Conn., Mass., and New York, and the National Title.
He has judged hundreds of contests throughout the US and is the author of "The Sturtze Drum Instructor", a book which gained the reputation of being "The Drummer's Bible".
Mr. Sturtze has been a member of the NARD since the first year of it's organization and holds Certificate 46. He was presented with a Gold Plaque replica of the NARD certificate and a Gold Life Membership Card from the Officers of the NARD and the Ludwig Drum Company at a testimonial tendered him in 1972 by some of his former pupils.
Earl is still very active teaching and many of his pupils are still winning titles."
From "The Evolution Of Drum Corps Drumming" by Dan Spalding, published in Percussionist Spring 1980:
"The quality of the groups, such as the highly regarded Charles T. Kirk Drum, Fife and Bugle Corps from Brooklyn New York, was much superior to the drumming in the marching drum corps of the same period. This was partly due to the activities of a master teacher from that era, Earl Sturtze, who was himself a championship snare drummer from the early thirties. In the late thirties and early forties it was Earl Sturtze students such as Bob Redican, Hugh Quigly, and Frank Arsenault that set a high standard of quality that would influence rudimental drumming for years to come."
From "The Contribution Of Senior Drum And Bugle Corps To Marching Percussion" by William McGrath, publ. in Percussionist Spring 1980:
"One of the people who had a great deal of influence on Earl Sturtze was J. Burns Moore, who lived, at one time, only two blocks away. Carl Frolich, a Burns Moore student, began teaching the art of drumming to ten year old Earl Sturtze in 1911.
Most of the drummers from that era had a desire to develop strength in all the performance areas of drumming such as that of theater work, orchestra work, marching band work, fife and drum corps, and drum and bugle corps. Mr. Sturtze was a substitute drummer at the Lafayette Theater in Buffalo, New York, during the time when vitaphone became popular. During the five years he was a resident of Buffalo, he was a street car conductor and played for three years in the IRC band (International Railway Company Band, 1926, 1927, and 1928). When he returned to Connecticut he captured the top individual snare drum award seven times consecutively for the championship title of the Connecticut Fifer's and Drummer's Association. He also won other state championships in various fifer's and drummer's associations, including those of New York State and Massachusetts, and was an open invitational individual National Snare Drum Champion in 1928.
In 1931, Mr. Sturtze was commissioned to teach the newly formed Stratford, Connecticut Yankees. The Yankees were one of the most respected senior corps in the nation, winning the Connecticut State Championship many times and often attending the American Legion Nationals.
After a four year void of American Legion competition due to World War II, the 1946 Nationals took place in San Francisco, California with the Connecticut Yankees of Stratford emerging victorious. Their drum section scored 19.9 out of a possible 20 by one judge, and a perfect 20 by the other judge. Mr. Sturtze taught them for 27 years.
Many famous rudimental instructors and judges were directly influenced by Mr. Sturtze's instruction. Of these were: Frank Arsenault, who after winning the American Legion Individual National Snare Drum Title three times, migrated west to Chicago to become the instructor of the famed Skokie Indians of Skokie, Illinois; Mike Steffanowitz, who after leaving the Stratford line became a clinician for the Ludwig Drum Company, writing many periodicals and method books on style and instruction; Bobby Redican, also of the Connecticut Yankees, was another National Individual Snare Drum Champion and it is said by Eric Perrilloux that Bobby Redican is "one of the best drummers I've ever seen." Another expert from the later Stratford years is Ray Ludee, who replaced Don Freezing to teach the Connecticut Hurricanes. Under Ray Ludee's instruction, the Hurricanes won an American Legion National Championship and two DCA World Championship titles, taking high percussion in the DCA four times, which is a feat that is yet to be equaled. Frank Arsenault, Mike Steffanowitz, Bobby Redican, and especially Ray Ludeegive direct credit to Earl Sturtze for their drumming abilities and proficiency. Mr. Sturtze stayed with the Connecticut line until 1958, then due to a major outflux of the original members, the corps eventually disbanded in 1960." [Note: The Connecticut Yankees actually disbanded in 1973]
Earl Sturtze's prominence as a rudimental instructor is so great that an entire room is dedicated to him at the Museum Of Fife & Drum in Ivoryton, Connecticut.
