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Thread: Brass Band megathread

  1. #1

    Brass Band megathread

    CONGRATS.

    What band are you playing with?
    DANA


    Meet the Family
    Junior - Euphonium - 1906 - Henry Distin Mfg.
    Hastings - Trombone - 1952 - Boosey and Hawkes
    Bramwell - Euphonium - 1988 - Besson/Boosey and Hawkes (BE967)
    Margaret - Baritone - 2015 - Sterling1050HS
    Albert - Eb Bass - 2023 - Dillon 981S


    New York Staff Band - 2nd Baritone - 1991-1994
    Philadelphia Freedom Band - Euphonium
    Lancaster British Brass Band (all hail the 2nd baritone) - 2022-

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by anadmai View Post
    CONGRATS.

    What band are you playing with?
    Lancaster British Brass Band. Do I know you?

  3. #3
    *waves hi*

    I’m the new 2nd baritone player. I’ll be starting in a few weeks. I spotted you when I came to visit on 4.25. Noticed your horn from across the room. ☺️



    Quote Originally Posted by Mp4G View Post
    Lancaster British Brass Band. Do I know you?
    DANA


    Meet the Family
    Junior - Euphonium - 1906 - Henry Distin Mfg.
    Hastings - Trombone - 1952 - Boosey and Hawkes
    Bramwell - Euphonium - 1988 - Besson/Boosey and Hawkes (BE967)
    Margaret - Baritone - 2015 - Sterling1050HS
    Albert - Eb Bass - 2023 - Dillon 981S


    New York Staff Band - 2nd Baritone - 1991-1994
    Philadelphia Freedom Band - Euphonium
    Lancaster British Brass Band (all hail the 2nd baritone) - 2022-

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Rosenberg, TX (soon to be Philadelphia, PA)
    Posts
    68
    This thread is taking a turn, but the coincidence has caught me by surprise. I play euphonium in the Houston Brass Band, but my family is moving up to Philadelphia for my wife's job. I am hoping to stay involved in a British Brass Band and I know of two around there, Lancaster and Penn View. I would love to check out your next performance!

    Any chance ya'll commute from Philly or do ya'll live closer to Lancaster?
    Euphonium player with the Houston Brass Band
    Willson 2950
    Gidding & Webster EXL

  5. #5
    Hi there.

    I live NW of Philadelphia with my wife and two daughters in the Reading, PA area. Starting in September I’ll be back in the city each Monday evening to play in a LGBT related group.

    Penn View?
    DANA


    Meet the Family
    Junior - Euphonium - 1906 - Henry Distin Mfg.
    Hastings - Trombone - 1952 - Boosey and Hawkes
    Bramwell - Euphonium - 1988 - Besson/Boosey and Hawkes (BE967)
    Margaret - Baritone - 2015 - Sterling1050HS
    Albert - Eb Bass - 2023 - Dillon 981S


    New York Staff Band - 2nd Baritone - 1991-1994
    Philadelphia Freedom Band - Euphonium
    Lancaster British Brass Band (all hail the 2nd baritone) - 2022-

  6. #6
    I didn’t know Penn View existed. They’re literally up the road from my office.
    DANA


    Meet the Family
    Junior - Euphonium - 1906 - Henry Distin Mfg.
    Hastings - Trombone - 1952 - Boosey and Hawkes
    Bramwell - Euphonium - 1988 - Besson/Boosey and Hawkes (BE967)
    Margaret - Baritone - 2015 - Sterling1050HS
    Albert - Eb Bass - 2023 - Dillon 981S


    New York Staff Band - 2nd Baritone - 1991-1994
    Philadelphia Freedom Band - Euphonium
    Lancaster British Brass Band (all hail the 2nd baritone) - 2022-

  7. #7

    Brass Band megathread

    Dave - please let me know if this is an ok place to put this.

    I was inspired to make this thread because so many members of this forum either play in one or more brass bands or are generally just enthusiastic about brass banding. I thought we could all share our experiences, who we play with, who we've played with in the past, what rep we love, championship/contest stuff, etc., etc., etc.

    So to start - Hi, I'm Sean. I currently play first euphonium with the Crossroads Brass Band in Indianapolis, of which I've been a member for 5-6 years, as well as the Indianapolis Brass Choir, which is not a traditional brass band but plays a LOT of brass band music/arrangements (similar to River City). I've played in the IBC for around 10 years. I have been a section mate of Jim Williams (Snorlax on this forum) in both of these groups. I have also been a brief member of the Cincinnati Brass Band as well as the board of NABBA (would have loved to have stayed on, but I just didn't have the time to dedicate to it).

    Hopefully this thread takes off. I'd love to hear from everyone else and share in this particular genre that I love so much!
    Last edited by RickF; 06-25-2022 at 01:14 PM.
    Sean Kissane
    Low Brass Specialist, Paige's Music
    Principal Euphonium, Indianapolis Brass Choir
    Principal Euphonium, Crossroads Brass Band

  8. #8
    I will jump in to share my experience. As I have discussed previously on the forum I was away from the euphonium for about 7 years after finishing up college. Up until that point my only playing experience was in an American concert band setting and tuba-euphonium ensembles. After I bought my horn in 2014, I spent about 6 months getting my chops into some sort of shape and then started looking for a group to play with and came across the Brass Band of Nashville in Nashville, TN.

    It was certainly based on the Brass Band mold but with a few non-standard instrumentation modifications. Specifically, the tuba section just played what they had. If I recall most everyone was on either BBb or CC, I don't think anyone played EEb. We had no baritones, so our whole section played on a mixed bag of euphoniums ranging from 4-valve compensators, oval rotaries, and 4 valve non-comp American-style baritones. We did not use tenor horns, we instead had a French horn section.

    I loved playing in that group and had a lot of fun. We played a mix of brass band charts and band/orchestra transcriptions. I think the non-standard instrument adjustments help make it accessible for people in the community to come as they were, and I loved having the French horn sound. The group was not involved in competing or touring much. We played a a concert every quarter at our home base, which was a local church, and also 1-2 concerts at local community music festival -type things. A highlight for me was performing on stage at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, a beautiful hall.

    There was a more traditional brass band out of Chattanooga that we occasionally did joint concerts with as well.

    Anyways, there is my brass band story, though admittedly a bit of a non-traditional one. I certainly owe a lot of my post-college musical fulfillment to that group.

    Edit: Just wanted to add that most of the music for that group was arranged by one of the long-time members of the Brass Band of Nashville, Albert Turriciano, who was a retired US Air Force musician and a wonderful arranger and trombone player.
    Last edited by aroberts781; 06-24-2022 at 10:31 AM.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    West Palm Beach, FL
    Posts
    3,853
    Good idea Sean in starting this thread! I'm going to move a few posts here from the 'Baritone Buying' thread since they were off topic.

    Unfortunately those moved were placed above Sean's first post. Don't know why.
    Last edited by RickF; 06-24-2022 at 11:52 AM.
    Rick Floyd
    Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
    YEP-641S (recently sold)
    Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank


    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

  10. #10
    Cool idea!

    My introduction to brass band was through drum corps. I marched with Phantom Regiment from 2009-2011, and my first year the entire last half of our production was taken from the great work 'Paganini Variations' by Philip Wilby. I remember one day during spring training we listened to all of the source music on a rainy afternoon with JD (the brass caption head at the time), and when we listened to the Wilby piece I was blown away! I had no idea what I was hearing, but I was hooked!

    When I moved to Colorado in 2013 to start my MM degree I started playing with a local brass band (non-competitive) called Rocky Mountain Brassworks. Really great group that sits at about the 2nd section in NABBA if they competed. We did about a concert a month or so, and every concert was in a packed auditorium! The guy who runs that group, Doug Harris, knows how to put together a great concert with a theme that's fun for players and the audience. That's where I got "used to" the brass band instrumentation and learned a lot of repertoire. We would occasionally play some championship level stuff and we programmed 'Of Distant Memories' one concert cycle, and I realized I really enjoyed playing test pieces.

    I played with that group for 2 years, and then there was an opening for Pikes Peak Brass Band (about an hour and a half south of Denver) which is/was a competitive 1st section band. I sat on 2nd Eb Tuba my first year and then moved to the solo euphonium chair the next year. I remember sitting in the first rehearsal with that group and I could barely keep up with how much sound was coming out of the band, but I freakin loved it! The music was great, and the people were great! I took a year off after 2 years with that group, and then the following year I auditioned for Colorado Brass which was a new-ish group that competed in the Championship division, which is ultimately what I wanted; to play that level of music in a competitive group. I joined them in 2019-20, and was super excited to do NABBA 2020 in the championship section on solo euph, then COVID hit. I had my first taste of playing in the solo euph chair in a championship level brass band competing at NABBA 2022 this past April and I can't wait for the next one!

    Favorite non-test piece I've played would be the Sandy Smith arrangement of Los Hermanos de Bop - super fun!
    Favorite test piece I've played - Of Distant Memories
    Favorite test piece I want to play! - Vita Aeterna Variations
    Steven Vaughn, D.M.A.
    Professor of Tuba & Euphonium, University of Northern Colorado

    Principal Tuba - Fort Collins Symphony
    Euphonium - Fountain City Brass Band

    Eastman 836 CC Tuba
    Meinl Weston 2182W F Tuba
    Besson 2052 Euphonium

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