VocalEssence and the Copper Street Brass Quintet will present Brits & Brass on Friday, April 13th (8 pm) at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.
The concert will feature the American premiere of The Night’s Untruth by Tarik O’Regan (co-commissioned by VocalEssence) and The Far Theatricals of Day by Jonathan Dove.
Brits & Brass will open dramatically with Benjamin Britten’s Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury, with three trumpets surrounding the audience at Central Lutheran Church. As a nod to the Royal couple’s first anniversary, the musicians will perform Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens, which was sung by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal at the Royal Wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Kate Middleton. The concert will also feature pieces by Judith Bingham, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, the American premieres of The Far Theatricals of Day by Jonathan Dove and The Night’s Untruth by Tarik O’Regan, co-commissioned by VocalEssence.
Tickets for Brits & Brass are $13.50-$43.50. For tickets and information, call 612-371-5656 or visit www.vocalessence.org.
VocalEssence Chorus & Ensemble Singers
Philip Brunelle, conductor
Called “one of the irreplaceable music ensembles of our time” by Dana Gioia, past chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, VocalEssence was founded in 1969 by current Artistic Director Philip Brunelle. Recognized internationally for its innovative exploration of music for voices and instruments, the organization presents an engaging collection of concerts featuring the 130-voice VocalEssence Chorus, the professional 32-voice Ensemble Singers (well known for their appearances on the internationally-distributed radio show A Prairie Home Companion hosted by Garrison Keillor), guest soloists and instrumentalists. In addition to championing lesser-known works of the past, VocalEssence has an unwavering commitment to today’s composers resulting in more than 130 world premieres. VocalEssence has released thirteen commercial recordings, including four WITNESS CDs of music by African American composers and artists available on the Clarion label.
Copper Street Brass Quintet
These five brilliant young musicians may have dozens of recitals, a few hundred jazz gigs and countless concerts between them, but they’ve also got style, substance, and a flair for innovation. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2007, The Copper Street Brass Quintet set up shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2008 where, through their inventive concerts, engaging classroom programs, and a host of original arrangements, they’ve transcended the brass quintet box and evolved into something fresh. The group has recorded three albums and has been featured on Minnesota Public Radio, KARE 11 news and Montana Today. Their two newest albums, Christmas on Copper Street and The Evolution of the Brass Quintet feature all-new recordings of everything from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite to Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin.
“If you missed The Copper Street Brass Quintet last week then you missed a lot…they blew the roof off the place!”
- Faulk County Register, Falkton, SD
Tarik O’Regan
Born in London in 1978, Tarik O'Regan was educated at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. His work has garnered two Grammy® nominations (including Best Classical Album) and two British Composer Awards. He has held the Fulbright Chester Schirmer Fellowship at Columbia University and a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard. Other appointments in recent years include positions at Trinity and Corpus Christi Colleges in Cambridge, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Yale University.
Jonathan Dove
Jonathan Dove was born in London, the son of architects, and was playing the organ in his local parish church by the age of 12. After reading music at Cambridge, where he studied composition with Robin Holloway, he worked on the music staff at Glyndebourne and as a freelance keyboard player, animateur, composer and orchestrator. In 1990 he became Music Advisor to the Almeida Theatre in north London and he has written music for many plays there, as well as for productions of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the New York Shakespeare Festival and the National Theatre.
