Music City Legend Drum & Bugle Corps is the only competitive “all-age” drum and bugle corps in Tennessee. A Tennessee non-profit, charitable organization with IRS 501(c)(3) status, MCL is an active participant in contests sponsored by Drum Corps Associates (DCA). The corps draws its membership predominantly from Middle Tennessee and neighboring states, attracting individuals new to the drum corps idiom as well as former members of many different marching programs with a vast array of other musical backgrounds and experiences.
The corps’ mission is to further and enhance education in music and performing arts through competitive drum corps. In the process, MCL increases public awareness of the social and historical significance of the drum & bugle corps activity in the Mid-South region. MCL serves as a goodwill ambassador for the Nashville area by providing entertainment at local events and represents the area with distinction when it is on the road for competitions, parades, and other performances.
Music City Legend was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, during the summer of 2003 with help from a small group of drum corps enthusiasts from the Middle Tennessee region and other experienced drum corps veterans from Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Mississippi. First performing in 2004 as a 21-member “mini-corps”, the MCL grew to 60 members and competed as a field corps for the first time in DCA’s class “A” category the following year.
The corps quickly developed a national following with its powerful and emotional brass section, an aggressive percussion ensemble, and thematic visual programming which appealed to a wide variety of drum corps fans. Additional growth propelled the corps to jump up to “open” class, competing against DCA’s largest corps with up to 128 members, in 2006.
In the fall of 2010, Music City Legend’s management set about re-inventing the corps by hiring a new team of designers and teachers. The corps purchased new uniforms and additional equipment in order to further develop new program concepts and a more modern approach to the activity. MCL continues to define itself within the community while honoring its own history.
The “new” Music City Legend approaches the summer of 2011 with a more refined brass ensemble sound unique to the drum corps activity, along with a greater emphasis on modern percussion and visual design. The corps is pleased to be recognized as a member of Innovative Percussion’s stable of artists.
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