The Cymbal Gloves emerged from the place any new product emerges from, which is a place of need. Chelsea Levine sought a way to help her cymbal line at Centerville High School (PSW) achieve some skills they were struggling with. Her students were having difficulties executing the visual phrases she wished to implement, and in some cases, they were experiencing bleeding on the wrists from the abrasive nature of the cymbal straps. From the need to protect the health of her students, as well as find a way to broaden their abilities came the idea for a layer of “armor”, so to speak, that would also solve the problem of straps that grew sticky from the sweat of the performers. With the use of The Cymbal Gloves, that cymbal line learned the skills they were seeking to learn, and it was clear that this tool could help solve these very common problems for other cymbal lines in the activity.
“The people who profit from the sale are cymbal players themselves.”
Herein the best part of The Cymbal Gloves, in that the people who profit from the sale of this product are cymbal players themselves. With every purchase of a pair of The Cymbal Gloves or any other Seavine product, the profits are wholly funneled into a fund that is dedicated to scholarships for cymbal players who wish to partake in the higher levels of the pageantry arts. These scholarships are offered under the umbrella of The Cymbal Scholarship. Chelsea manages the scholarship and oversees all fund-raising, adjudicator selection and management, and applicant eligibility. Currently, these scholarships are open to people who perform in certain classes of Drum Corps International (DCI) and Winter Guard International (WGI). Plans are currently in place to open the scholarship to ALL classes of DCI and WGI, as well as long-term plans to extend it to performers in Drum Corps Associates (DCA) as well as Bands of America (BOA). The goal is for the sale of The Cymbal Gloves to always reward its most important asset... its performers.
Chelsea Levine is an established cymbal technician throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
She’s dedicating her post-marching career to the advancement of marching cymbals through education, Seavine, and founding The Cymbal Scholarship.
Chelsea has marched and taught in various groups around the world. She was fortunate enough to perform with Rhythm X, Crossmen Drum & Bugle Corps, Jersey Surf Drum & Bugle Corps, United Percussion & Gateway Indoor. Since aging out, Chelsea has been a cymbal technician for Rhythm X since 2014 and has previously taught Spirit and Colts Drum and Bugle Corps, Centerville High School, Western Carolina University, and DrumSpirit. She has also promoted the art of cymbal playing with clinics in the United States, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, China, and Thailand.
In 2010 Chelsea founded Seavine, her company that offers high quality cymbal and hornline performance products such as The Cymbal Gloves. She founded The Cymbal Scholarship- assisting WGI & DCI cymbal players with their membership fees. Since 2012, Seavine has given away over $25,000 to marching cymbalists fully funded by Seavine profits.
Chelsea’ is also the author and instructor of the Seavine Cymbal Education Series. It’s her hope to further strengthen the cymbal community through the videos and book. She currently resides in Nashville, TN with her super cool quad tech husband Thomas and their energetic dog Rachel.
Chelsea has been fortunate to study under the direction of many instructors including Erin O’Dore, Melissa McGoldrick, Lauren Sakowski, Ryan Jezierski, Peggy Smires, Steve Regener, Kelly Howell, Jack Borland, and Diaz Clark.
Carley Belknap has been an involved in the marching arts as a cymbal player and educator for over a decade. She began playing cymbals in Northern Virginia in 2014 as a high school freshman. During her time as a performer, Carley had the opportunity to perform with several world-class ensembles including the George Mason University Indoor Drumline, the Madison Scouts, and Rhythm X. Carley was one of the first female percussionists contracted at the Madison Scouts when the drum corps became gender-inclusive in 2020. She was also a 4-time recipient of The Cymbal Scholarship between 2017-2022.
Carley now teaches cymbals year-round with the George Mason University Indoor Drumline and the Madison Scouts. She has also taught cymbals at the high school and collegiate levels with Bellbrook High School and the University of Maryland Drumline.
Carley graduated from James Madison University with a B.S. in Computer Science in 2022. Outside of teaching, Carley has interests in programming and mapping technologies. She has previously worked as a product engineer in the GIS industry.
Jerry Charvat resides in Pensacola, Florida where he began his marching career at Escambia High School as a trumpet player graduating in 2005. He is currently completing his B.F.A in Graphic Design from the University of West Florida with interests in branding and identity, photography, cinematography, social media marketing, and the creative process from start to finish. His marching experience includes Southwind Drum & Bugle Corps 2007 and Music City Mystique 2008. Jerry has consulted with many ensembles across the gulf coast including Mississippi, Alabama and Florida ensembles in both cymbal instruction and visual programming respectively over the past 16 years. He has been the cymbal tech for the Escambia High School Diamonds Indoor Percussion Ensemble since 2005. He has provided cymbal instruction to the Florida State University Marching Chiefs, Big 8 cymbal line since 2010, Pioneer Drum & Bugle corps, 2013, University of South Alabama Jaguar Marching Band cymbal line since 2014, Spirit Drum & Bugle Corps 2017, and is a current cymbal and percussion visual tech at Southwind Drum & Bugle Corps since 2016. He has annually served as the lead cymbal clinician for the North West Florida Percussion Arts Society Day of Percussion. When he’s not teaching the cymbal craft, he enjoys traveling! He is currently working as a program specialist at the University of West Florida Center for Behavior Analysis, freelances as a graphic designer, and serves in the U.S. Navy Reserves as an Information Systems Technician.
Thomas (pronounced similarly to Spanish Tomás) built his first website in sixth grade. He coded and designed all throughout high school, but then took a ten-year hiatus from web development to focus on obtaining his master’s degree in translation, teaching English at a Belgian university, and marching and teaching drum corps. He currently teaches the Rhythm X quadline and serves as program coordinator for DrumSpirit. Formerly, he was a quad tech for Carolina Crown (2023), Mandarins (2022), Blue Knights (2017-2019) and The Cavaliers (2012-2013).
Born and raised in Belgium, Thomas speaks four languages: English, Dutch, German and French. He moved to Nashville, TN in the fall of 2017, where he now resides with his wife Chelsea and their energetic dog Rachel. He saw the move as the perfect time to get (back) into web and app design. Thomas is the owner and lead designer at Clawsun Design. When he isn’t teaching drums and designing he loves to travel and eat chocolate.
