November 3, 2003

American Brass Quintet to perform at BYU-Idaho

 

 

            The American Brass Quintet will perform in the Barrus Concert Hall Thursday and Friday, Nov. 13-14, as part of the Center Stage Performing Arts Series at Brigham Young University-Idaho.

            Tickets are $8 for the general public and $2 for BYU-Idaho students. They can be purchased at the ticket office in the Manwaring Center, by calling the BYU-Idaho Ticket Office at 496-2230 or by visiting the website at www.byui.edu/tickets.

            While at BYU-Idaho, the quintet will also do three days of residency work with brass students. Dedicated educators as well as performers, the quintet is in residence at The Juilliard School where they have administered the brass chamber music program since that program’s inception in 1987, as well as teaching individual students. Since 1970, the quintet has administered the brass chamber music program at the Aspen Music Festival in the summer.

            When the American Brass Quintet gave its first public performance more than 42 years ago, brass chamber music was relatively unknown to concert audiences. That modest debut, on December 11, 1960, marked the beginning of an international concert career for the ensemble that Newsweek calls “the high priests of brass.”

            In the United States, the quintet has performed on major concert series in all 50 states including at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. The quintet’s foreign touring has taken it throughout Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.

            Among recent foreign performances, the quintet performed to rave reviews at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, in Japan at the 10th Anniversary of the Aspen-Japan Festival, at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, the Orquesta Sinfonica Carlos Chavez in Mexico City, Bratislava Music Festival in Slovakia, and Brno Autumn Festival in the Czech Republic.

            Since its inception, the quintet has maintained an extensive recording schedule. By the end of the 2003-2004 season, the quintet will have made 50 recordings representing the largest body of serious brass chamber music ever recorded by one ensemble.

            Of equal importance to the quintet’s recording project is its commissioning project that now numbers over 100 works for brass quintet. These commissions, along with the quintet’s own editions of Renaissance and Baroque music, and premieres of forgotten 19th century brass repertoire, have firmly established this ensemble’s commitment to the ever growing field of brass chamber music.

 

 

  


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