Serenade in Brass - Mini Corps Show - CANCELED

[Jeff Ream]

It is only ONE sentence that has caused any foul.

I do not disagree with Jeff that maybe the plug could have pulled earlier than it was, but many people kept trying as hard as we could to not have a cancellation. I was almost ready to call Cossetti to play with the Ghost Riders.

Donny

is it possible Five Star could have been let into the loop earlier on how it was all going down? If this came out of nowhere to them, yeah I can see their point.

Think about it...you send your mailer out and you're told all is well, then a month later "surprise!"...yeah I'd be a little ######

[Donny Drum Corps]

I thought you had to be under 23 years of age to play for the Ghost Riders! (oh no, more Mini Corps drama) Donny , if you won't do it I will, I know for a fact how hard YOU also, personally, tried to keep this show afloat. Sometimes the big picture gets clouded and people do not really see or understand what goes into making an event happen, which still baffles me why an orginization like 5 Star would put out a statement like that. I'm sure in their existence that they have had shows fail to materialize at the last minute... I just don't get it

What are you writing for GR this year?

Ghost Riders are playing the same thing we always play as usual.

[ContraLou]

I'm sorry and disappointed to hear that a decision had to be made to cancel the afternoon Mini Corps competition.

the officials at MCA tried very hard to assemble a line up of corps to perform but could not secure enough committments to make the show happen. I believe that until just recently there were still hopes of gathering enough corps to have the show, thus the short notice to Five Star.

I guess it's just another example of our booming economy.

Thanks to MCA for trying and thanks to Five Star for once again stepping up to offer a place and time for the MCA Mini corps to show their stuff. Five Star was the first to make such an offer. They're a first class organization.

Serenade in Brass is one of my favorite shows to be in and hopefully there will be a chance to do it again in the future.

Like we say with the Red Sox, Wait till next year.

[Donny Drum Corps]

Believe me, I encouraged what you are asking for, to get it out sooner, but Larry was in NOLA for two weeks, and the final nails in the coffin didnt come until all leads were exhausted. We did cancel it in our own minds, only to have other corps such as Steel City and Mon Valley suddenly come available. By that time however many of the original groups had made other plans, so it was too late. Please dont bash the attempt to save this. We tried everything, and Rod especially didnt want to hurt Larry in the slimmest chance that it might happen, HE kept it going.

DA

[captcastile]

well if i recall, money made on the show past expenses went to MCA from posts in past years, but Larry didn't throw anyone under the bus. If anything, Larry got chucked under the bus with less than 60 days to go

Not quite sure what your trying to say there...but remember, Larry was getting a top level Mini Corps to perform in his show that night for the donut, quick math tells me he saved 2000 to 2500 hundred dollars by having that arrangement.

If we can all agree on one thing, it is that Larry is no dummy, he is also a businessman, I can't believe that he would have entered into any agreement with MCA without at least getting something out of it. I've said before that MCA was very appreciative of Larry's efforts to help promote the Association, but it was two-fold a win-win for both parties. IMHO a lot of that luster was lost with his "Actions" remark

[Gary Matczak]

IMHO a lot of that luster was lost with his "Actions" remark

Larry didn't make the original post........................just sayin'

[Donny Drum Corps]

For the record...MCA even agreed to offset the costs for travelling with the groups that we asked out of MCA's account. You will again see many of them at DCA, but when they were asked to perform in Harrisburg, one after another they declined. I could list the names of many of these corps, but that shouldnt be necessary.

DA

Edited March 1, 2010 by donnymusic

[melloone]

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

[Jeff Ream]

Not quite sure what your trying to say there...but remember, Larry was getting a top level Mini Corps to perform in his show that night for the donut, quick math tells me he saved 2000 to 2500 hundred dollars by having that arrangement.

If we can all agree on one thing, it is that Larry is no dummy, he is also a businessman, I can't believe that he would have entered into any agreement with MCA without at least getting something out of it. I've said before that MCA was very appreciative of Larry's efforts to help promote the Association, but it was two-fold a win-win for both parties. IMHO a lot of that luster was lost with his "Actions" remark

Larry getting the donut may have offset the facility costs

[Jeff Ream]

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

thanks Rod