Brass Band
Triangle Brass Music
The last two TBB concerts have been pretty amazing for us. We enjoyed great audiences and some awesome music. For as long as I can remember, band members have not really been interested in recordings of their concerts, but some have been asking, so here are some files from our last two concerts.
May 9, 2015 at Trinity United Methodist in Durham, NC – “I Shall Rise Again”
The Piper O’Dundee – Robin Gorham, Solo Tenor Horn
My Song of Songs – Kent Foss, Cornet soloist
May 29, 2015 at Bond Park in Cary, NC with Guest Drum set Artist David Albert – “Big Band Brass”
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy – Sean Walsh, Mark Beamish, Evan Atherton, Trumpets
Stella By Starlight – Caren Enloe, Trombone Solo
Sing Sing Sing – Dave Albert on Drum set (extended solo version)
Harlequin by Philip Sparke
Here is the incomparable Demondrae Thurman on Euphonium as soloist with the Triangle Brass Band from March 2014.
Brass Band Trip
I am planning to go on a trip to England to research brass bands sometime in the next year. I am looking to see some of the best brass bands in the world, watch them rehearse, play concerts and talk to them about how to program, fund raise and stay viable and productive in todays economy. All in the hopes of being able to serve the Triangle Brass Bands better.
You can help me by sending a little cash my way for this trip. Just click on the link below. I would be most grateful!!!!
NABBA 13
Here are the TYBB performance mp3’s from NABBA last year.
O Magnum Mysterium
O Magnum Mysterium, taken from the text of the Christmas Liturgy, is an appropriate way to wish ALL a happy holidays. This performance is with the combined tuba/euphonium/baritone sections of the Triangle Youth Brass Band and Triangle Youth Academy Brass Band (formerly Brass Ensemble). This was performed on a concert where we combined both bands to play movie music and we also had brass choir music (Trumpet Ensemble, Horn Choir, Trombone Choir, Tuba/Euph Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble). It was a fun concert. Most of the kids in this ensemble are my private students, so it was really fun for me to do this tune with them.
Times is Busy
Its been a jammed up week or so. Rehearsing marching bands all last week as they prepared for their first competitions, with a long Saturday in Spartanburg, SC judging a show, and the brass band performing at Edenton St. UMC Sunday morning seemed to keep things rolling along. It has been a pretty good week, though. I really enjoyed the judging gig in SC. Saw some really good bands and I felt like I got the scores right, with the correct spreads. Hope everyone was happy with it, and my comments were useful.
The brass band played well in church and was very well received. Hopefully some people who saw us will attend some of our concerts in the future. We will play a concert at Edenton St. UMC in May, so maybe this will help with that. We start rehearsals for our next concert in November this week. We are using a lot of subs. Its such a busy month.
Jonathan made a quintet website. Its my turn to do a blog post for the quintet, and I am struggling to find the time to do it. I have to get into that soon. There is a trumpet post and horn post, so keep an eye on the quintet site for more brass tips.
The Sound Sport thing is beginning to pick up steam. We now have our website up and running and have already begun getting interest from potential members. It will be in the planning stages for a couple months, but we will look to hold auditions in April and we will rehearse and perform in June and July. I will be building a team of staff soon, and will be announcing things on our website and facebook page.
This weekend will be busy with judging and football, and a lot of marching band this week getting better for this weeks shows. So far, I am pleased with how the bands I work with are progressing.
Until next update…
Some Big News
It has been a busy couple of weeks here, but all seemed to go pretty well. The quintet has been meeting a lot to do some weddings, educational concerts and our first big concert at edenton Street UMC. We had a great audience at Edenton St. and all of the education concerts went really well, and the kids where great with their questions. The quintet is pretty motivated to drive traffic to our website, so Don eagle posted a great article about practicing trumpet, which was sent all over the place for people to see. We have plans to follow up each week with a post from others in the quintet. We are not meeting this week, but have several rehearsals set up for next week to get ready for the next thing. Its a ways off, but we seem to be staying ahead of the game right now. Pam and I will be meeting this week to work out details on our brass chamber music camp which will roll out this summer.
The brass band has been in full swing. We started our season with rehearsals and a free concert in Cary last weekend. There was a huge crowd and they were very receptive. The band sounded really good and the weather was perfect for a concert. We have been auditioning players to fill some holes in the band and will be announcing the new members this week when we finish the auditions. We are now working on music for our performance at Edenton St. UMC on Sept. 29 for their Sunday services. This is a new thing for us, as we try to get in front of more people who may not have heard of us. We launched our new website, and it looks pretty good, so check it pout here...
The biggest news is the new Triangle Brass Sound Sport Team that I just started here. It is sponsored by the Triangle Brass Band and is in the early stages of development. We will be fielding a team this summer and details will be trickling out over the next couple of months. Our website will be up soon, but in the meantime, you can see info here…
This weekend will be fun. I am playing with the Wilmington Symphony and my best friend from college will be visiting. I will most likely be getting the new iPhone 5S on Friday and will go off the grid for the weekend to play the tuba and hang out with my buddy.
It Begins
Rehearsals continue for the quintet today for our upcoming concert on September 6 at Edenton Street UMC in Raleigh. Â We are playing a cool concert with brass and organ. Â We have rehearsals each morning this week for that, plus I am sure we will have some next week as well. Â Info for the concert can be found here…
Triangle Brass Band starts rehearsal for this season tonight.  We are working on a program of  British music like Holst 1st suite, Dambusters, MacArthur Park and much more.  That concert will be September 14 at Bond Park in Cary.  Info for that can be found here…
Its been a busy week of lessons and band rehearsals and the way the schedule is looking, it will be a very busy few months until Christmas. Â Summer is over. Â Time to get to work.
Planning Update
This week I am spending a little time on the road driving to Campbell University to teach brass sectionals. It gives me a little time to think and ponder how the season is going to look for the brass band. Mostly, I can work things out in my head about music to play and when to play it. Currently, I am not overly thrilled about the line up for the season, but I am confident I will work through it. I would estimate I am only about 10% sure about what we will do.
There are other things going on as well. A few of us are kicking around ideas for the solo competition we are starting up this season. We should be ready to announce that soon, and it should be a great opportunity for some young brass players.
I took a quick trip to Greensboro to hang out with some friends and the conversations were very helpful. Some ideas where floated around that were not on my radar screen. Its so very obvious that there is a whole side of this thing that I am NO GOOD at. A friend and local weatherman Greg Fishel always talks about being in sales, not production with his weather reports…Well, I am the other way. I am in production, not sales when it comes to this brass band. I do need to get better at the Sales. I am working on it, as well has so many things that can help me in this area.
So, at this point, there is mostly a lot of pondering about music going on. I have a list of tunes to do, but where to do them and how to make it interesting to the band and audiences…gotta figure that out.
tonytuba.org 