Poster Copper Street Brass
Copper Street Brass, L to R: Tim Bradley, Nick Adragna, Allison Hall, Corbin Dillon, Alex Wolff and Reid Kennedy.
Jenna Mahr

Live from the Fair: Copper Street Brass

Although most of the musicians of the Copper Street Brass didn't grow up in Minnesota, the Minnesota State Fair has become tradition for them. "This will be our eighth year in a row we will have performed for Classical MPR," says Copper Street Brass musician and artistic director Tim Bradley.

On Friday, Sept. 2, at 2 p.m., John Birge welcomes two ensembles, Cantus and the Copper Street Brass, to the Carousel Park stage for a live performance and broadcast for MPR Day at the Minnesota State Fair.

This year's Fair marks the second time Copper Street Brass will perform at MPR Day, and Bradley appreciates the stages at both the MPR booth and at Carousel Park. "Especially performing at the booth, we're very used to having the pork-chop-smoke breeze waft over us and the French fry smell," he chuckles, "so it'll be really nice to be on the Carousel Park stage, because it's a bigger stage and a nice big audience, and it'll be fun to be live on the air as well."

The group got its start in 2007 in Albuquerque, N.M., and takes its name from a main thoroughfare in Albuquerque, where in fact the group played one of its first gigs. In 2008, Copper Street Brass relocated to the Twin Cities and established itself as a nonprofit ensemble dedicated to pushing the boundaries of chamber music and to providing educational programs. Bradley sees the Carousel Park performance as an extension of that mission. "We love to bring the music more to the people, so we do perform in nontraditional venues like a movie theater or a pub or a restaurant," he says.

"Performing at Carousel Park is great because we do get to reach a lot of people at the Fair," Bradley continues. "Maybe people who haven't heard of us before or maybe aren't familiar with Classical MPR programming or aren't even familiar with a brass ensemble, so we're trying to basically play a little greatest-hits concert for the audience: bold, brassy, mostly energetic repertoire."

Helping with that energetic repertoire are a couple additions to the group: percussionist Reid Kennedy and trumpet player Josh Cameron (longtime trumpet player Corbin Dillon now works in an office position for the ensemble). "It's fun to have Reid in the group; he's a phenomenal percussionist and he really adds a lot of that tonal variety on drums and percussion," Bradley says. "And Josh is a fantastic player; he went to St. Olaf College and then he went to the U of M for his masters, and he's actually from Anoka. He and Reid are the only native Minnesotans in the group; the rest of us are from all over the country."

Bradley says Friday's program, in typical Copper Street Brass fashion, will contain a number of different styles of music. The group will begin with Brahms' Hungarian Dances No. 5, then move to "a fiery tango" by Astor Piazzolla. Next, the program will feature music by a couple of Leonards — an arrangement of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen and an arrangement of "America" from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein. And for the last number? "I don't want to give it away," Bradley says. "It's a fun, lively piece that includes everything from a chorale, to polka, to disco. We're going to surprise people with this tune."

Following the broadcast, the members of Copper Street Brass will set out in search of State Fair treats. "When we're wrapped up, we usually all go right to the Pronto Pup stand, we each get one of those," Bradley says. "Then we usually hit the apple pie or the Sweet Martha's Cookies. Those are kind of our three go-to spots. And we usually end up at the Leinie Lodge with a cold beverage, just to cool off a little bit."

Spoken like a true State Fair veteran.

Listen to Classical MPR on Friday, Sept. 2, 2016, at 2 p.m., to hear the Cantus followed by Copper Street Brass at 2:30 as they perform live at Carousel Park at the Minnesota State Fair as part of MPR Day at the Fair. John Birge hosts.

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