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Atlantic Brass Quintet Seminar Performances

From July 21st through August 2nd of this year, I studied with the Atlantic Brass Quintet at their Seminar, hosted at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. During the seminar, I was placed in a quintet and assigned different pieces of standard quintet repertoire to read, rehearse, and perform. Each week, the quintet was coached for 4 hours a day, each hour with a different coach from the quintet or its colleagues. The coaches focused on musical interpretation, instrumental technique, and chamber musicianship. Each coach approached the repertoire from a different perspective and drew different ideas out of the quintet's playing. The coachings and rehearsals culminated with a student recital on Friday, where the groups at the seminar performed their pieces.
I'm proud of the performances I was a part of - the Braeburn Brass put together Plog's Four Sketches during week 1, and Shane Endsley's Declamatory Ascent for week 2.

Before the student recitals, on Thursday nights, the Atlantic Brass Quintet gave their own recital. The first week featured various arrangements by Jeff Luke, associate principal trumpet of the Utah Symphony, as well as an arrangement of Ives' Variations on America. My favorite performance from their week one recital was Jan Bach's Laudes which we studied in Advanced Brass Ensemble Literature this past Spring semester. During the week, I attended ABQ's open rehearsals and got to observe them rehearsing the piece, which they had obviously performed together beforehand. Their performance was gripping, and it was interesting to see the culmination of their rehearsals throughout the week. Of course, in a group of professional musicians, they were marking in cues and ideas, but their rehearsal technique of "Yes, and..." really struck me. Picking up an idea and immediately trying it by playing it led to quick musical decisions, made without extensive debate - one of the members said that you'll know pretty much as soon as you play which musical idea works best. Another rehearsal technique which stuck with me was the quintet's emphatic and musical singing. While rehearsing Laudes, the quintet committed to singing like they were going to play, which ironed out complex rhythms and reinforced musical ideas that the group wanted to execute.
ABQ's recital week 2 featured a wide variety of different styles of composition, from a Bach arrangement to Tom Waits' What's He Building?.
Here on Truba Talk, it would be remiss of me to fail to mention the Balkan brass section of the week 2 recital. A few pieces I was familiar with were featured, and I couldn't help but bounce in my seat. But my personal favorite was a piece I'd never heard before: SAT, or Time. The above recording features the Boban Markovik Orkestar performing, but the ABQ performance blew it out of the water, with incredibly exaggerated dynamics and some nasty scoops in the bassline. Their arrangement went from pianissimo on the sustained chorale sections to a triple-forte on the (forgive my solfege) me-ra-do interjections, and it was just too much fun.

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