Live from the Fair: Copper Street Brass Quintet

The Copper Street Brass Quintet have performed at the MPR booth at the Minnesota State Fair for a number of years. On Tuesday, Sept. 1, their performance was broadcast live on Classical MPR. Alison Young hosted.

We connected with the Copper Street Brass to get some details before Tuesday's broadcast. Here's what they had to say:

Can you share any of the repertoire you'll be playing on Tuesday?

Copper Street Brass always prides itself on performing a wide variety of styles and genres of music, in addition to playing other instruments like guitar, keyboards, electronics, and percussion. We do all of our own arranging in-house — our Artistic Director, Tim Bradley, has done over 200 arrangements for brass! We love stretching the boundaries of what a traditional instrumental chamber ensemble can do, and this year at the Fair will be no different.

We'll open our set with a classical barn-burner: Brahms' "Hungarian Dance no. 5", with searing trumpet notes, melodic horn and trombone lines, and — of course — the oom-pah tuba. Other classical tunes include music by Tchaikovsky and a suite of famous arias from the opera Carmen. We'll throw in some jazz with Dave Brubeck's time-bending standard (and CSB fan-favorite) "Blue Rondo a la Turk", and we'll be performing Gershwin's "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, but in an up tempo style featuring Tim on acoustic guitar. Other music includes beautiful arrangements of tunes by singer-songwriters Billy Joel and Leonard Cohen, and we'll be closing our set with the famous tango by Astor Piazzolla, "Libertango", where Corbin performs on percussion, Nick throws down a mean bass line on tuba, Alex fires his trombone on all cylinders, Tim plays the haunting tango melody, and Allison makes her trumpet soar all the way to the end.

You've played a number of times for Classical MPR at the Fair; what have you learned that works well versus doesn't work so well in the Fair setting? Does the live broadcast change your approach at all?

Yes, this will be our seventh year in a row performing for Classical MPR at the Fair! We love performing at the MPR stage, but it certainly does present its challenges … it's usually really hot, and we've learned that Allison and Corbin (our trumpet players) bear the brunt of the sun in the afternoon, so they always bring sunglasses, extra sunscreen, and ice water! We always memorize our music, and because of the intimate stage with the audience close to us, we always love to take the opportunity to wander into the crowd and really get them involved: clapping, laughing, and responding to our musical sounds.

Another challenge is the street noise. With so many people wandering around (and with the good ol' French Fries booth next to us), it can get pretty loud out on the sidewalk and street. So to make sure we get good crowds to the booth, we usually stick to mostly up-tempo, recognizable and fun music for the fairgoers who might just be passing by. Our goal is to perk up everyone's ears, to treat them to some great music and to get them over to the MPR booth!

We're so thrilled we'll be live on the air. We're excited to tell everyone about our upcoming Twin Cities Concert Series, where we have three amazing shows for our local metro audiences, as well as talk with our host and friend Alison Young about the CSB, our musicians, and our artistic and educational missions.

When you're done with your performance, what are some of the quintet's must-have State Fair treats?

After our Fair performances, we've made it a tradition for all five of us to go get a Pronto Pup — pronto! As for individual tastes, Tim is partial to the deep-fried candy bar, and Nick and Alex always grab a bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies and then head straight to the milk. Allison grew up in Wisconsin, so her go-to is the cheese curds in the food building, and Corbin hails from Texas, so he's always up for any kind of Fair food as long as it's deep-fried, on a stick, and BIG!

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