It’s been a big year for the Ithaca Brass, the resident faculty Brass Quintet at Ithaca College.
After being on hiatus for a few seasons, this academic year marks their full return to the stage and as a touring entity. Ithaca Brass’s current season has included performances and clinics in Buffalo, Rochester, and an appearance as the keynote ensemble and clinicians for the New York State Band Director’s Association. Following their performance at FLEFF, they will be spending several days on tour in the greater-Boston area.
This year’s annual FLEFF brass concert features the Ithaca Brass Ensemble in collaboration with the Aurora Brass, comprised of Ithaca College Center for Music undergraduate musicians.
From quintets to double quintets, this year’s brass concert travels through a wide range of polyphonic music from the 17th century to the present. Composers include Gabrielli, Vivaldi, Crespo, Stephens, Schumann, and 20th century jazz.
The program mixes musical genres and styles to showcase the wide range of styles available to brass instruments. It moves through ancient, modern, and music from the centuries in between. No two pieces are alike, elaborating a vast set of genres and musical forms. The program also includes work by underrepresented people groups – specifically women and Latin American composers.
A core element of polyphony is for all voices to shine in distinctive expression, timbre, tone, and equality of musical role. This program features music that opens the distinctive voices of different brass instruments for a deeper immersion in the joys of polyphony.
If you think brass is confined to marching bands and John Williams’ movie scores, this concert will invite you into a new way of listening. Brass has been associated in popular culture with the limiting stereotypes that it is only about fanfare, boldness, and brightness.
This concert entices and summons the audience to listen differently and to defy these expectations. Listen for subtle differences across the tuba, trumpet, horn, and trombone. Listen for changes in tone and color. Find those many intimate gestures between the players rather than the stereotypical big blasts.
At the end of the concert, you will almost certainly leave with new ears.
FLEFF: 26 YEARS OF A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT
