SAN ANTONIO — Arsenal, an El Paso, Texas-based SoundSport ensemble, capped off its 2025 season — a summer that served as the organization’s first as an evaluating Open Class corps — at the DCI Southwestern Championship presented by Fred J. Miller Inc. on July 19.
“Texas this year has been absolutely amazing,” said Arsenal drum major Alexandra Vanderwolf. “We’ve had so much success, and the crowd absolutely loves us. The hype that we built since last year is just something else.”
Arsenal’s 2025 tour was an extended undertaking compared to the corps’ 2024 campaign, as the corps performed at two events for the first time in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Canyon, Texas. Arsenal also returned to three venues from its 2024 tour, as well as a show in Mesa, Arizona.
“We’ve expanded our tour this year; we went from four shows to five shows, so we did pretty much all of the ‘Texas Tour,’ and then basically the southern states near Texas,” Vanderwolf said. “When we hopefully go to Open Class, we’re going to expand it even more.”
The 2025 summer season marked Arsenal’s first as an Open Class candidate corps, a designation that denotes the start of a three-year evaluation process. Should the corps successfully complete its year-one requirements, it will continue its evaluation in 2026 as an Open Class “affiliate.”
Learn more about the Open Class evaluation process
Arsenal shined in its first year of evaluation, scoring “gold” SoundSport ratings at all of its shows with the corps’ production titled, “Equilibrium.”
Beyond standout performances, and as Arsenal looks ahead to its second year of evaluation, Vanderwolf highlighted the positive culture and experiences that are being created within the corps as an important next step.
“Being able to be a part of something where we’re truly building and being able to see these kids — some of whom have never even played a brass instrument — perform in the Alamodome six weeks later is something so special,” Vanderwolf said. “I cannot put into words how thankful I am to be a part of this process.”
