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Mendel Mainstage
April 17, 2010 • Saturday 7:30pm
Pre-concert conversation 6:30pm
Concert 7:30pm |
AMERICAN VERSATILITY
featuring
Boston Brass
Celebrate American versatility as the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra performs with the entertaining Boston Brass. Achieving new levels in brass performance while treating audiences to a unique musical experience that captivates all ages, Boston Brass is setting new standards in musical entertainment. Showcasing immense versatility, this performance will feature music by Piazzolla and more. The ensemble's lively repartee, touched with humor and personality, bridges the vast ocean of classical formality to delight audiences to an evening of boisterous fun, exciting knowledge and an enthusiastic love of music, deftly exhibited by five brash brass players.
Purchase Tickets!
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Sponsored by
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ESTHER M. HAHNE
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Bios
JOSE SIBAJA, trumpet
JEFF CONNER, trumpet
CHRIS CASTELLANOS, French horn
LANCE LADUKE, trombone/euphonium
ANDREW HITZ, tuba
For nearly 25 years, Boston Brass has set out to establish a one-of-a-kind musical experience. From exciting classical arrangements, to burning jazz standards, and the best of the original brass quintet repertoire, Boston Brass treats audiences to a unique brand of entertainment, which captivates all ages. The ensemble's lively repartee, touched with humor and personality, attempts to bridge the ocean of classical formality to delight audiences in an evening of great music and boisterous fun. The philosophy of Boston Brass is to provide audiences with a wide selection of musical styles in unique arrangements, provided in a friendly and fun atmosphere.
Through over 100 performances each year, the members of Boston Brass play to audiences at concerts, educational venues and jazz festivals. In addition to solo performances, Boston Brass regularly performs with orchestras, bands, organ, jazz bands and a variety of other ensembles. They have performed in 49 states and 21 countries and have conducted master classes around the world including sessions and residencies at the Eastman School of Music, Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Peabody Conservatory of Music, University of North Texas, Royal Academy of Music in London, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory at the National University of Singapore and Mahidol University in Bangkok.
Boston Brass helped raise over $100,000 for VH1’s Save the Music program, giving musical instruments to schools in need. They have been featured educators and performers at the Mid West Band and Orchestra Clinic, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, Music Educators National Conference events, American Bandmaster Association Conference, The American Band College, and at the Texas Bandmasters Association Convention. Since 2006, Boston Brass has served as Artist/Educational Ambassadors for Jupiter Band Instruments.
Boston Brass has been featured on The CBS Early Show, National Public Radio's Performance Today, The Great American Brass Band Festival and has recorded several diverse albums. Latin Nights, their latest offering, features a collection of some of the greatest classical and jazz works by Latin composers and performers and features the legendary drummer Steve Gadd, the beautiful voice of Talita Real, percussion and guitar. Other albums include Ya Gotta Try, featuring music from Horace Silver, Chick Corea and Dizzy Gillespie, produced by legendary jazz recording genius Rudy van Gelder and Within Earshot, featuring classical works by Shostakovich, Ginastera, Dvorak, Liszt and others.
Boston Brass has two holiday recordings, Christmas Bells are Swingin’, and The Stan Kenton Christmas Carols, featuring the Boston Brass All-Stars Big Band playing the truly phenomenal charts made popular by the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Boston Brass tours a vibrant holiday show each year featuring many of the charts from these two albums, combined with a variety of solo and combo selections and some fun surprises, which has quickly established the show as a perennial audience favorite.
2011 marks the 25th Anniversary of Boston Brass and will be celebrated with the “25 Fanfares Project,” wherein 25 fanfares will be premiered by composers from all over the country. Boston Brass will also premier a new major commission and new arrangements by the legendary Sam Pilafian. Additionally, Boston Brass is very excited to have the opportunity to collaborate in the 2010/2011 season with the fabulous Imani Winds in a program entitled “Sketches of Spain,” featuring the music of Miles Davis and Gil Evans. |
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