The Music Department at Mary Baldwin University is pleased to announce the opening Broman Concert of the season, featuring Seraph Brass, an internationally-renowned brass quintet which draws from a roster of America’s top female brass players. The concert is at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 14 in Francis Auditorium on the Mary Baldwin campus.
“We are thrilled to be able to bring Seraph Brass to Staunton,” says Dr. Lise Keiter, chair of the Music Department at Mary Baldwin. “There is something special about the sound of a top-notch brass quintet, and Seraph Brass is so unique (and unusual) in that all of the players are female. This should be a fantastic concert!”
“We are performing a wide variety of works that show the versatility of brass instruments,” explains Mary Bowden, trumpet player for Seraph Brass. “You will hear the fast and virtuosic Go! by Anthony Dilorenzo and the beautiful sound of flugelhorns in Debussy’s Clair de Lune. We also love talking with the audience about the works we are performing and telling the story of the music. You’ll also see the trumpeters play on many types of trumpets, including the piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn, b-flat, c, e-flat, and d-trumpets!”
“One of the works on this concert is Asteria by Catherine McMichael, a piece that we commissioned. We recorded our debut studio album this summer in Finland, and this is one of the featured works,” says Bowden. “It tells the story of three different constellations based on female characters: Andromeda, Virgo, and Pleiades. Other pieces on the program include original arrangements for the group by Jeff Luke including Mozart’s ‘Queen of the Night’ Aria and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. We will also perform some audience favorites: Bernstein’s West Side Story and Puccini’s famous aria ‘Nessun Dorma’ from Turandot.”
Seraph Brass has toured throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe, and they recently performed multiple concerts at the Lieksa Brass Week in Finland. Members of the quintet have performed with such esteemed ensembles as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Musicians from Marlboro, National Symphony, Daejeon Philharmonic in Korea, and Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand. Many members of Seraph Brass also performed with Adele on her 2016 North American tour.
Tickets for Seraph Brass may be purchased at the door and are $25 for the general public, $20 for seniors, and $5 for non-MBU students. Season tickets are also available. To purchase tickets online or for more information, visit https://www.mbu-live.local/arts/music/ or call 540-887-7294.