The Minnesota Brass hornline marches in for a recent performance.

Fresh off of its exhibition performance Wednesday night in front of a hometown crowd in St. Paul, Minnesota Brass is getting ready to hit the road. This might be an all-ages corps but members are getting a taste of the junior-corps lifestyle this weekend as they head out on a regional tour that takes them to three states in three days.

First up is Friday night’s North Iowa Festival of Brass in Forest City, Iowa. After a three-hour drive from the Twin Cities, the corps will spend the day rehearsing at Forest City High School, the site of the show. This is another DCI Open Class competition, where Minnesota Brass will perform along with the same lineup from Wednesday night in St. Paul – including Blue Devils B, Colt Cadets and Music City.

Saturday morning begins with a rehearsal block in Forest City before the corps makes the six-hour trek to Racine, Wis., for that night’s Kiltie Klassic Invitational. This – finally – will be Minnesota Brass’ first DCA show of the 2014 season, with a lineup that includes Chops Inc., Cincinnati Tradition, the Govenaires and , of course, the Kilties. The Racine show marks Minnesota Brass’ latest seasonal DCA debut since 2006.

Sunday finds the corps back in Minnesota – after an overnight stay in Madison, Wis. — for the city of Red Wing’s River City Days parade. Then it’s back home in the Twin Cities by late Sunday afternoon.

The corps will have traveled about 1,000 miles by the end of the weekend. More importantly, it will have entertained audiences for the first time (Forest City) or for the first time in many years (Red Wing).

“We’re excited to be part of these new shows and perform in front of new fans in Iowa and Minnesota,” said Eric Molho, director of Minnesota Brass. “Plus we’ll get our first read by DCA judges in Racine. We’re looking forward to a fantastic, but busy, weekend.”

The Brass Bucs Cabs Challenge is on! Now’s your chance — from July 12 to Aug. 23 — to support Minnesota Brass in a friendly fundraising contest with our East Coast DCA friends, the Buccaneers of Reading, Pa., and the Caballeros of Hawthorne, N.J.

All proceeds raised through fans of Minnesota Brass will go toward the corps’ new uniforms. A donation of $100 will buy a pair of pants, $250 a jacket and a shako and $500 a whole uniform. But any donation of $10 or more will gladly be accepted. You can give the effort an extra boost by sharing a link from the donation page on social media, because each share generates an average of $18 more in donations. The corps that raises the most money will earn bragging rights, but — really — all the corps are winners once the generosity of our supporters is tallied.

Make a difference! Support Minnesota Brass in the BBC Challenge.

Kyle Tsuchiya (center), a 2014 graduate of Eden Prairie High School, performs with Minnesota Brass during an exhibition June 29 in Alexandria, Minn. (Photo: David Whitaker)

Minnesota Brass has been getting lots of attention lately from the Twin Cities media. It’s all part of the excitement building for DCI Eden Prairie, which will feature the hometown drum and bugle corps on Friday night (July 11) along with some of Drum Corps International’s top units .

DCI’s change of venue from its annual DCI Minnesota competition at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis to Aerie Stadium in Eden Prairie played a big part in the coverage. The new site piqued the interest of the suburb’s two weekly newspapers, the Sun Current and Eden Prairie News. The weeklies focused on several members of Minnesota Brass who graduated recently from Eden Prairie High School: mellophone player Olivia Urbanski, bass drummer Kayla Furmanski  and snare drummers Zach Fitzgibbon, Ben Poirier and Kyle Tsuchiya. Also featured were percussionist Peter Wagner, an alumnus of EPHS, and hornline leader Scott Palmer, who also is the band director at EPHS.

Palmer also serves on the brass staff of the Blue Devils of Concord, Calif., which will be competing at DCI Eden Prairie. He talked about working with the 15-time DCI champion and Minnesota Brass, the 2011 DCA champion, at the same time.

“It’s challenging from a schedule perspective,” he told the Eden Prairie News. “They’re both great organizations that are going full cylinder all the time.”

The other corps competing at DCI Eden Prairie include DCI World Class finalists Bluecoats of Canton, Ohio, and Boston Crusaders of Boston, as well as DCI Open Class finalist Legends of Kalamazoo, Mich. Rounding out the field are DCI Open Class favorite Jersey Surf of Camden County, N.J., and an international guest, Blue Saints of Sudbury, Ontario.

As show organizer and Minnesota Brass alum Brent Turner told the EP News, the Blue Devils are expected to have stiff competition from the Bluecoats. “They’re kind of the underdogs right now,” he said of the Bluecoats.

That showdown is one of the reasons why the Minneapolis Star Tribune selected DCI Eden Prairie as a “Best Bet” – with a shout-out to Minnesota Brass – in its Events Calendar and its free Going Out app, which rounds up Twin Cities happenings for thousands of mobile users. The Star Tribune also featured DCI Eden Prairie in its west-suburban community section.

It’s not too late to buy tickets to DCI Eden Prairie – 7:30 p.m. July 11 at Eden Prairie High School Stadium (17185 Valley View Rd., Eden Prairie). It promises to be a great night for Minnesota Brass and drum corps fans.