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Upcoming
2009 Events
Concert of Brass Ensembles
Crown City Brass, Homer Brass, and St. Mary’s Brass
7pm Sunday
May 17, 2009
St. Mary's Church
44 N. Main Street
Cortland, NY
Three Cortland-area brass ensembles will present a free evening of brass music at 7:00pm on Sunday, May 17, 2009 at St. Mary's Church, 44 North Main Street in Cortland, NY. Admission is free.
The concert will feature the combined talents of the Crown City Brass, the Homer Brass Ensemble, and the St. Mary's Brass Ensemble under the direction of Michael Poole in a performance of music from the Renaissance up to modern times. Featured on this concert program will be a series of excerpts from Norman Dello Joio’s "Scenes from the Louvre", arranged for the three combined ensembles by local musician and concert participant Brian Shelley. This program will also include Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli's antiphonal work "Canzon septimi toni no. 2", as well as a variety of other music performed by each individual ensemble. The concert will conclude with the director’s arrangement of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from George Frederic Handel’s celebrated oratorio Messiah.
The Crown City Brass was formed in 2005, drawing on the talents of six musicians from the community: Mark Baxendell and Brian Shelley (trumpets), Terry Martens (French horn), Michael Poole and Phillip Rumsey (trombones) and Cheri White (tuba). They are regularly featured in the Classical Music Festivals held throughout the year in Cortland, and have also performed in several other locations, including local churches and other cultural events.
The Homer Brass Ensemble was organized in 1980 by 4 amateur musicians looking to further their love of playing their instruments by playing in a group to honor God with their talents. From this beginning developed an ensemble whose primary focus became augmenting worship services of area churches with the sound of brass music. They have on occasion played concerts, dinners and weddings, but focus on a music ministry in churches. The great majority of the arrangements performed are from The Salvation Army collections of brass band music. They are deeply indebted to the Salvation Army for their help in acquiring music to perform. The group has had many changes in size and instrumentation over the years, but still has two players from the original group performing. The ensemble now consists of eleven members: Gary Shiffer and Tom Chrysler (trumpets), Dick Martin (flugelhorn), Terry Martens and Kim Sanderson (French horns), James Van Dusen, Ken Briggs, and Cheri White (euphoniums), Art Davenport and Jim D'Addario (trombones), and Stan Nilsson (tuba).
The St. Mary’s Brass Ensemble is an instrumental group serving the St. Mary's parish in Cortland. Made up of parish members and other volunteers from the community, this ensemble performs classical and liturgical music on feast days and other special Masses at St. Mary's Church. Performing in this group are Jeff Dovi, Dan Hoffmann, Alex Pizzola, and Molly Reagan (trumpets), Eileen and Lydia Allen (French horns), Michael Poole (trombone), and Timothy Stedman (tuba). This concert will also feature St. Mary's Church music director and organist Armand Di Scenna, who will perform several works with the St. Mary’s Brass Ensemble, including two pieces by George Frederic Handel and an excerpt from Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah.
This event is made possible with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Grant Program, a State Agency, and the Cultural Resources Council, a Regional Arts Council. For additional information on this concert, check Classical.CortlandMusic.Org or email Michael Poole at mjpoole@buffalo.edu
Admission is free to all who wish to attend.