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This Saturday the Ghost Riders will be performing their 2012 DCA Mini Corps production titled "A Civil War Portrait" (along with other crowd favorites) at the Mighty St. Joe’s Alumni Corps “Curt Anderson’s Memorial Classic” Greece Apollo Middle School 750 Maiden Lane,Greece NY. Concert starts at 6:30 PM featuring: • The Ghost Riders Mini Corps, Parts Unknown • United Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps, Simcoe, Ont. Canada • Steel City Ambassadors, Pittsburg, PA • De La Salle Oakland Crusaders Alumni Brass Ensemble, Toronto, Ont. Canada • St. Joe's Reunion Corps, Batavia NY • Mighty St. Joe’s Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps, LeRoy NY

Here is the balance of the years: Scores Mini Corps 2008 Star United 98.33 Mass Brass 97.17 Golden Eagles 95.17 Music City Legends 94.23 Ghost Riders 93.00 Minne Brass 91.67 Thunderbirds 91.67 Capital Brass 84.33 Amoskeag Sound 81.00 Outlaws 81.00 Crossmen Xtreme 77.83 Scores Mini Corps 2009 Star United 97.83 Mass Brass 93.50 Music City Legends 93.50 Ghost Riders 93.17 Golden Eagles 92.17 Minne Brass 92.00 Skyliners 85.67 Vigilantes 83.00 Freelancers 82.00 Capital Brass 77.00 Gulf Coast Sound 75.33 Generations 73.67 Cincinnati Traditions 68.83 Scores Mini Corps 2010 Star United 99.50 Ghost Riders 98.00 Mass Brass 95.33 Golden Eagles 93.67 Freelancers 93.33 Minne Brass 91.67 Vigilantes 86.50 Sine Wave 85.50 Skyliners 79.33 Marksmen 71.00 Scores Mini Corps 2011 Star United 100.00 Ghost Riders 97.67 Minne Brass 95.33 Mass Brass 92.67 Freelancers 88.50 Racine Kilties 81.33 The Centurions 73.83

What time does it start..........6:30 You do not want to miss the Ghost Riders, they are on first!

Ghost Riders Announces their 2nd Open House of the year! What: The Ghost Riders Drum Corps membership drive for 2011 When: Friday Night January 28th and Saturday January 29th Where: The Salvation Army Facilities 529 East Main Street Batavia, NY. Time: Friday at 7:15 p.m. & Saturday at 9:45 a.m. Additional info: Our complete 2011 production for the DCA Mini-Corps Championships will be the focus of this mini-camp The Ghost Riders have different levels of participation; from parades up to stage performances (which includes making a run at the DCA World Mini-Corps Championships). We are looking for percussionist and brass players in order to do more performances during the spring, summer and fall seasons. Come check us out! If interested contact Rod Keppel @ Email me or Doug Mellenthine @ Email me The Ghost Riders were originally formed in 1996 to compete in the Drum Corps Associates “Mini Corps” competition. As of 2010, the Ghost Riders have had 15th consecutive DCA championship appearances. This represents the most appearances by any Mini-Corps in the history of this event. In all competitions, the Ghost Riders have constantly finished in the top 5 with 5 third place finishes, 6 second place finishes and one World title, a tribute to their desire to always perform at a high level of excellence. Since then, the corps has been entertaining audiences year round with their own distinct blend and style of music The Corps co-directors are Doug Mellenthine and Rod Keppel. Brass arrangements are by World Drum Corps Hall of Fame member Donny Allen (Caption Head), Assisted by Kacy Dolan, Matt Jaeger, and Associate World Drum Corps Hall Fame member Bobby (Legato) LaDuca along with Joey Pero (consultant). This year’s DCA program to be performed on Labor Day weekend is titled, “American Landscapes”. Ghost Riders are confident the 2011 edition will be a favorite for the fans and members alike. “Happy Trails” The Staff

go to http://www.primetimebrass.com for more info.

Ghost Riders Announces their Open House! What: The Ghost Riders Drum Corps membership drive for 2011 When: Friday Night January 7th and Saturday January 8th Where: The Salvation Army Facilities 529 East Main Street Batavia, NY. Time: Friday at 7:15 p.m. & Saturday at 9:45 a.m. The Ghost Riders have different levels of participation; from parades up to stage performances (which includes making a run at the DCA World Mini-Corps Championships). We are looking for percussionist and brass players in order to do more performances during the spring, summer and fall seasons. Come Check us out! If interested contact Rod Keppel @ Email me or Doug Mellenthine @ Email me The Ghost Riders were originally formed in 1996 to compete in the Drum Corps Associates “Mini Corps” competition. As of 2010, the Ghost Riders have had 15th consecutive DCA championship appearances. This represents the most appearances by any Mini-Corps in the history of this event. In all competitions, the Ghost Riders have constantly finished in the top 5 with 5 third place finishes, 6 second place finishes and one World title, a tribute to their desire to always perform at a high level of excellence. Since then, the corps has been entertaining audiences year round with their own distinct blend and style of music The Corps co-directors are Doug Mellenthine and Rod Keppel. Brass arrangements are by World Drum Corps Hall of Fame member Donny Allen (Caption Head), Assisted by Kacy Dolan, Matt Jaeger, and Associate World Drum Corps Hall Fame member Bobby (Legato) LaDuca along with Joey Pero (consultant). This year’s DCA program to be performed on Labor Day weekend is titled, “American Landscapes”. Ghost Riders are confident the 2011 edition will be a favorite for the fans and members alike. “Happy Trails” The Staff

I have known Gerry since he joined the Mellophone line of Mighty St. Joe’s. He was such a gentleman and just an all around good guy. Any Corps would have been honored and lucky to have him in their horn line. Never saw him get upset and always had a positive attitude. There is now a huge empty space in our Mellophone line. I personally will miss him a lot. RIP Gerry, our Canadian friend

Geoff, We thank you, and the other Ghost Rider's Alumnus, for being part of the Ghost Rider's family and supporting and cheering us on to this years 2nd place finish. We also tip our hats to all the competitors that were on the stage last Friday night. A special shout out to our MCA members, Mass Brass and Golden Eagles, for keeping us on our toes as we all try to catch Star United. Being on as late as we were, I did not get a chance to see any of the Mini-Corps live. However after seeing them on You Tube, all I can say is that the talent level of all the corps is way up from previous years! Our membership does have some young talent however we do have 9 or 10 members over 55 with at least 7 over 60. Our average will put us up there with everyone else. Our program was titled "The OLD West meets the NEW Frontier" (i.e. old cowpokes with young guns) BTW, this was GR's 15th consecutive appearance in the DCA Mini-Corps Championships. Rod Keppel Co-Director Ghost Riders

Ghost Riders are in............we will be making our 15th consecutive appearance this year!

As President of MCA, I feel I should chime in. Yes this was an unfortunate situation with 5 Star Brass and MCA. As president of MCA I will take the full responsibility for the show not going on. Having stated that the following is important to understand: In 2009, due to a mix-up by the Hotel, Five Star Brass could not secure the Ballroom for the afternoon show. The prior two years were beneficial to both organizations and we felt we had a great thing going with the hotel’s ballroom. With that in mind, Larry and I discussed other available venues of which none seemed to fit the quality and atmosphere that both MCA and Five Star wanted to offer to the paying public. We thought best to cancel the show in 2009 and re-establish it in 2010, even realizing that taking a year off will also slow the momentum of the contest. Since last fall, I have been in touch with Larry Hershman in regards to this event. We did have a commitment from the prior three top finishing MCA Mini-Corps to compete in the 2010 MCA contest in Harrisburg on April 10th. We knew we needed additional competing corps and at our meeting January 16th we discussed the Mini-Corps committed to date, assign our membership Corps to contact to shore up this event and voted to add additional money from our treasury (minimum of $ 2,000.00) to help off-set the travel expenses of the membership to make this happen. The show line-up as of the end of January was Mass Brass, Ghost Riders, Golden Eagles, Steel City Ambassadors and pending an answer from Mon-Valley Express (which did commit at a later date) and Cincinnati Tradition (which respectively decline). We also had, for exhibition, the local Phoenix Indoor Percussion ensemble and Joey Pero’s quartet. The Erie Thunderbirds was to handle the show management duties. That, in our opinion, was well worth the price of admission. We, at that time were excited and looking forward to working alongside Five Star Brass again. What happened? After the Mini-Corps took this information back to their respective membership, some of the Corps withdrew due to either financial reasons or members having conflicts that were not known earlier. Many of the Corps reviewed the cost to travel the distance, pay for up to 10 hotel rooms for one or two nights and all the related expenses. After analyzing that, some of the corps’ members thought it best to stay home that weekend. To have half a corps show up to perform, in most cases, a book that requires the full ensemble was not going to be fair to the buying public or Five Star Brass. Most of this information came to light by February 4th. I worked, with others, diligently to try to salvage the show. While on vacation The week of 8th, I continue to try to make this happen and sent Larry an e-mail on the 13th alerting him of the situation. Larry was also out of town (until the 20th), thus the delay of communication. I continue to try, with Larry’s knowledge, until February 25th and at that time we both agreed to cancel the MCA afternoon contest. I closing, I also apologize on behalf of MCA for this debacle, as we did not want to present to the public a contest with only a few competing corps that everyone, including 5 Star Brass, expected and deserved more. We certainly tried our best. Respectively submitted, Rod Keppel President MCA

Bump

ANNOUNCEMENT The first meeting of 2010 for MCA (Mini Corps Associates) is scheduled for this Saturday Jan 16th @ 1:00 PM at the Reel Seafood Company in Albany, NY. If your Corps is interested in joining, this would be a good meeting to attend. The main topic will be the Mini-Corps Contest at Harrisburg April 10th 2010 (2:00 pm, the afternoon of the annual Serenade in Brass Concert)…... We are presently looking for a few more Mini-Corps to perform either in the competition or as an exhibition. Some of us will be arriving Friday night to partake in world problem solving and a few refreshments. Stop in a day early and join us for some "Drum Corps Camaraderie"………we will be at “205 on Wolf”, the bar attached to the hotel. Hotel Info: Holiday Inn….. 205 Wolf Road, Albany, NY (518-458-7250) Restaurant Info: Reel Seafood Co…..195 Wolf Road Albany, NY (518-458-2068) If you cannot attend the meeting and would like to be consider to perform in the Mini-Corps Contest at Harrisburg April 10th 2010, please email me at rkeppel1@rochester.rr.com. Rod Keppel President MCA