When Daniel Fong says Mandarins of Sacramento—now called Mandarins Performing Arts—is “kind of my whole life,” it’s no exaggeration.
Fong has been part of the drum and bugle corps for decades. His interest began in third grade when his older brother joined Mandarins. Fong played in the corps from 12 to 21, the age limit.
He stayed on as brass instructor and music arranger while studying zoology at UC Davis and optometry at UC Berkeley. He joined the Mandarins board in 2017 and became CEO in 2021.
“People form lifelong relationships in the Mandarins,” Fong says. “My best friends now are the ones I marched with back in the 1970s.”
The Mandarins was founded in 1963 as a Sacramento Chinese community drum and lyra corps called Ye Wah (a contraction of the Chinese words for Sacramento and Chinese). Four years later, they added brass to become a drum and bugle corps and changed the name to Mandarins of Sacramento. Requirements for Chinese ancestry were dropped in the 1990s.
“When we started winning championships, we started getting popular,” Fong says. “As time went on, more people wanted to be part of it. Now we have people auditioning from all over the nation.”
The Mandarins won eight world championships in lower levels and now rank among the top six in the World Class division. The Mandarins has been in the top 12 since 2018.
Competition aside, the main mission is to transform young lives with performing arts.
Through its Music Academy, Mandarins provide free music instruction to more than 1,200 middle school students in all 43 schools in the Elk Grove Unified School District.
With the Pathways program, the group teaches incarcerated youth within the California Department of Justice.
“There are 165 people in the (Mandarins) corps. We thought, why only impact 165 kids when we could do more and plant that seed of the gift of music?” Fong says.
Auditions are held in December, with monthly rehearsals starting in January. The schedule accommodates students from other states and overseas. Corps members make time commitments to ensure excellent performances.
In preparation for an annual summer tour, rehearsals ramp up “like spring training in baseball,” Fong says.
“They move in and rehearse for six weeks straight, then we’re on the road starting the last week of June all the way until Aug. 10. It’s like a traveling circus. We have an equipment truck, food truck, five buses. It’s a big logistical challenge, but it’s amazing what the team puts together. It’s a celebration of the human spirit, collaboration and cooperation.”
Over the years, the organization diversified to include Mandarins Entertainment, professional musicians available for events.
Immortal Winds is an indoor performing band with brass and woodwinds. The group works on a different season from the corps and gives local students an education-based learning experience.
Mandarins Event Center, a 9,000-square-foot venue off Bradshaw Road and Highway 50, provides rehearsal space for local orchestras and concert bands. The site accommodates weddings, birthday parties and social gatherings.
“When I took over in 2021, we were already growing by leaps and bounds,” Fong says. “Now it’s about efforts to get shored up and get the right people in place to make sure each program is viable and successful.”
An advisory board was formed last year, full of “passionate individuals.” The organization changed its name to Mandarins Performing Arts to convey the expanded repertoire.
Fong wants to grow the board and music academy to reach more students—including choir singers—and spread the gift of music.
Mandarins hosts DCI Capital Classic, one of California’s largest drum corps shows, July 5 at Inderkum High School. For information, visit mandarins.org.
Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
