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Saint Louis Brass Quintet Takes Community Arts Center Stage
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Also Saturday, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., the quintet will offer a brass workshop. Enrollment in the workshop is free and open to middle school, high school and adult brass musicians. The workshop is a part of the RCCAC Outreach Series associated with the 2007-2008 Evening Concert Series.
The Brass Workshop will be presented by members of the Saint Louis Brass Quintet. The five master musicians will cover the basics of brass performance along with individualized coaching.
The Saint Louis Brass Quintet was founded in 1964, and is one of America's longest standing brass quintets. Members of the St. Louis Symphony originally formed the group to play children’s concerts around the St. Louis area, but soon expanded to playing full-length concerts. Now, 44 years and more than 2,700 engagements later, trombonist Melvyn Jernigan is the only remaining original member and the only band member who actually lives in St. Louis. The other quintet members hold top music-related positions across the United States; and currently perform three 10-day annual concerts across the United States, in addition to their international shows. In the last decade, they have been featured at shows in Norway, India, Japan, Mexico, Germany and Sweden. The quintet has eight recordings to their name.
Trumpet player Allan Dean, professor of music at Yale School of Music, has lived for many years in New York City, performing with the New York Brass Quintet, the New York Cornet and Sacbut Ensemble. As a top call freelance concert and recording artist he worked with Leonard Bernstein and Igor Stravinsky. He is a founding member of Summit Brass, and is also a renowned player of the cornetto in the group "Calliope: A Renaissance Band." Dean has performed at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Casals Festival, Spoleto Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, and Prairie Home Companion. He formerly taught at the Eastman School of Music, Manhattan School of Music and Indiana University.
Trumpet player Ray Sasaki, professor of music at the University of Texas at Austin, is a founding member of the Tone Road Ramblers, a new music ensemble started in 1979 in New York City featuring composers and performers who commission and perform only new pieces. Sasaki has also commissioned many new works for trumpet, most notably with the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, International Trumpet Guild and the Jazz Members Orchestra of Chicago. He has also served on the board of directors of the International Trumpet Guild.
Horn player Thomas Bacon, a soloist and recording artist, has held principal horn positions with the Syracuse Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony and the Berlin Radio Symphony, as well as appearing with the Berlin Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, among others. He has performed in Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America, and has been featured as a soloist on international tours with the Amati Ensemble, the Berlin Radio Orchestra, and Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project. Bacon has played with over a hundred orchestras across the United States, at major music festivals throughout the world, and has made 10 solo recordings. He is editor of The Complete Hornist series for Southern Music Company, and has given master classes and clinics at hundreds of universities and colleges around the world.
Jernigan is the executive director for Primo Concerts, which handles bookings for the Quintet, Summit Brass and The RiverCity Ramblers, a Dixieland jazz group. For many years, he was bass trombonist with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, which he joined right after graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music. Jernigan is a recording and television producer as well as an arts manager, and has served on various committees and boards including the Missouri Arts Council, Mid-America Arts Alliance, ACUCAA, Young Audiences St. Louis, Summit Brass and Summit Recordings.
Tuba player Daniel Perantoni, professor of music at Indiana University, is a renowned tuba soloist, clinician, chamber musician, instrument designer and master teacher. He has been a featured artist at Carnegie Hall, Monterey Jazz Festival, Spoleto Festival U.S.A., Adelaide Festival in Australia, Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, Montreux Brass Congress in Switzerland, and as a soloist in Japan. He is a founding member of Summit Brass, a member of Symphonia, the Matteson — Phillips Tubajazz Consort, and has released numerous solo and chamber music CDs. Along with Robert Tucci, Perantoni designed the “Perantucci” line of low brass instruments and mouthpieces that has become the equipment choice for thousands of low brass players worldwide. He also serves as the vice president of educational matters and consultant/clinician for Custom Music Company.
The Saint Louis Brass Quintet will perform a variety of selections featuring music from their CD “Pops Music of the Americas” as well as from earlier CDs and their new DVD. The Quintet commissioned, and will premier with this spring tour, “Daylight at Midnight” by Dana Wilson. The evening will also include a new jazz medley titled “Tribute to Pops” and a special arrangement of the upbeat “Sweet Georgia Brown” by jazz arranger Joey Sellers. In addition, the tangos “Cafe 1930” and “Libertango” by the noted Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla will round out the evening.
The 2007-2008 Evening Concert Series at the Randolph County Community Arts Center is locally sponsored by Family Dental Practice, Allegheny Insurance, WDNE Radio, The Inter-Mountain Newspaper, and The Graceland Inn and Conference Center of Davis & Elkins College. In addition this project is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, a private contribution by Bernard Elder, the Heartland Fund, and the Missouri Arts Council.
The RCCAC is located at the corner of Randolph Avenue and Park Street in Elkins. Tickets for all concerts are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $5 for students. For reservations and information, call the RCCAC office at 637-2355 or visit www.randolpharts.org. Additional information on the performers can be found at http://www.hornplanet.com/slbq/index.htm.
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