Coming off of one of their most successful seasons ever, the Sacramento Mandarins are looking to launch themselves into a new tier of drum and bugle corps as they move forward into 2018 and beyond. 

Mandarins finished in 13th place at DCI World Championships in August and have since made some pretty dramatic adjustments to their instructional staff, including bringing in a new brass caption head. The visual caption also saw new additions, including a large number of recent world champions from the Blue Devils and Bluecoats.

Many of the Mandarins' staff members also do visual technician or design work for notable marching arts programs in their own areas of the country, including Texas powerhouse Marcus High School and RCC Indoor Percussion from the Winter Guard International (WGI) arena. Check out the Sacramento Mandarins' website to read full bios on each of the new staff members. 

Led by visual caption head Michael Samson and visual designer Peter Beckhart, the staff of 10 technicians will undoubtedly bring the California corps to a new level. 

Among the entire visual staff, they share around 30 years of experience in the Blue Devils "A" corps, including multiple staff members who spent years with the "B" and "C" corps beforehand.

Also adding to the incredible resume of the staff, there are over 15 Drum Corps International world championship titles between the 12 visual staff members. 

Needless to say, the 2018 Mandarins are off to a great start, and only time can tell where the cards will fall in respect to their visual program. 

In the meantime, keep up with Mandarins on social media as the corps goes through its audition process and monthly camps lead toward the big reveal of its 2018 production in the spring!

Getting a little nervous about your audition? Check out this amazing guide created by our own @jonaholloway ➡️➡️ https://t.co/TJTOpOYFpz

— Sacramento Mandarins (@DCIMandarins) November 24, 2017