A Holiday in Brass
Philadelphia - November 26, 2004
Bravo Brass, under the direction of conductor Paul Bryan, will present A Holiday in Brass on Saturday, December 4, 2004, at 8:00 p.m. at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 19 South 10th Street, Philadelphia. ADMISSION FREE.
The first half of the program will include performances of works by George Friederich Handel, Percy Grainger, Johann Ernst Altenburg, Felix Mendelssohn and Giovanni Gabrieli and concludes with a performance of Leroy Anderson's Suite of Carols which will include the members of the resident faculty brass ensemble. The second half of the concert features Donald Novy's Sonatina for Brass Instruments and concludes with holiday arrangements for brass ensemble, as well as a carol sing-a-long.
Bravo Brass, the brass ensemble of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra program, is designed for the many advanced high school-age brass players of the Delaware Valley region. Members of Bravo Brass, chosen by auditions held annually in June, improve their individual and ensemble playing skills, experience important pieces in the brass ensemble repertoire, and have the opportunity to rehearse and perform with the resident faculty brass ensemble. For those high school brass players who plan on pursuing music at the college level and, possibly further, Bravo Brass is an important, valuable opportunity to play with many of the finest high school-age brass players in the area and experience brass playing at an extremely high level.
Now in its 65th season, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO) is one of the oldest youth orchestras in a major U.S. city. Maestro Primavera has served as Music Director and Conductor since 1954, the longest continuous tenure of any active conductor in the world. He has introduced upwards of 3,000 PYO musicians to the works of over 150 composers, led 35 premiere performances, and guided the overseas concert tours that have taken the PYO to 21 countries on five continents, most recently Europe in June and July 2004. The Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra was established in 1995 under a two-year grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Louis Scaglione is the Conductor. The 190 musicians of the two orchestras were selected by competitive audition and range in age from 10 through 21. They attend schools and colleges in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware in a radius that extends more than 100 miles from the center of Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra receives support from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a State agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the U.S. Department of Education.