Middlesex County Volunteers

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The Middlesex County Volunteers is a 501(C)(3) not-for-profit fife and drum corps that plays music from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Founded in 1982 at the end of the United States Bicentennial celebration, the group is comprised of New England area musicians sixteen years old and older.

The Middlesex County Volunteers have performed extensively throughout New England at historic sites. They have also performed numerous times with John Williams, Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, at Colonial Williamsburg's Grand Illumination, and throughout the British Isles and Western Europe. In 2005 they were featured at the Yshalle Tattoo in Basel, Switzerland and have been invited to perform at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 2007. This will make them the first American Fife & Drum ensemble to appear at this event.

MCV wears the uniform prescribed by the U.S. Continental Army's clothing warrants of 1779. Blue coats with white facings (lapels & cuffs) were recommended for New England regiments, with white trousers and waistcoats. Musicians were recognized as "signallers," so colors were reversed as was the practice in Europe to distinguish non-combatants. Since the Continental Army derived many of its practices from Europe, the tradition of reversing the musicians' colors was also recognized.