Chestnut Brass Company residency announced

Visit part of Zankel Music Center's Moore Chamber Series  

Even those who can't tell a sacbut from a piccolo trumpet will find plenty to enjoy in the upcoming performance by Chestnut Brass Company at Skidmore College. The concert is scheduled at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11, in the Arthur Zankel Music Center's Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall. 

General admission will be $12. Admission for students with ID is $5. Tickets are available online.

The Grammy-winning brass quintet will be at Skidmore Friday and Saturday, Feb. 11-12, as the inaugural residents in the Moore Chamber Music Series. Named in honor of Elisabeth Luce Moore, the residency is designed to bring top-level chamber musicians to the campus each year.

"Bold" and "brassy" are among the adjectives used to describe this ensemble, which specializes in the use of ancient and historic brass instruments, such as cornetti, sacbuts, keyed bugles and saxhorns. CBC has been at the forefront of the period instrument revival, offering enormous variety in both instrumentation and in innovative programs.

At Skidmore, CBC will perform a program titled "American Voices," including arrangements of traditional tunes and pieces by Irving Berlin and Duke Ellington; Renaissance brass music performed on reproductions of historical instruments; contemporary works by Steve Rouse and Keven McKee; and American brass band music performed on keyed bugles from the 1830s, and on saxhorns from the 1860s.

Ensemble musicians are Bruce Barrie, Marian Hesse, Jay Krush, John Charles Thomas, and Larry Zimmerman.

"Chestnut Brass Company's program embraces the full historical development and expressive utilization of brass instruments," explained Jan Vinci, senior artist-in-residence of Skidmore's music department and faculty sponsor for this residency.

"In a sense, this mirrors Skidmore's approach to learning a subject in a broad perspective, while specializing in the details that create excellence," she said, adding that the ensemble members will give a presentation on early brass instruments to students in a Baroque ornamentation class at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 11, in Ladd Hall. CBC musicians will also present master classes for Skidmore and other area college and high school students, working with both individuals and ensembles. The master classes will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12.