UA’s School of Music Celebrity Series Welcomes Empire Brass

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama School of Music’s first Celebrity Series concert of the 2003-04 season will be Empire Brass on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Moody Music Building on the UA campus.

Empire Brass enjoys an international reputation as North America’s finest brass ensemble, renowned for its brilliant virtuosity and the unparalleled diversity of its repertoire. The five musicians – all of whom have held leading positions with major American orchestras – perform more than 100 concerts a year in cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington, London, Zurich and Tokyo.

With their best-selling recordings on the Telarc label, the group has introduced an even larger worldwide audience to the excitement of brass music ranging from Bach and Handel to jazz and Broadway. They are equally at home with the majestically antiphonal works that Gabrieli composed for St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice as with the exuberant show-stopping tunes that Richard Rodgers and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote for Broadway.

In addition to playing across the United States, Empire Brass has toured the Far East 16 times and performs regularly in Europe. The group has played to standing-room crowds in the former Soviet Union, where their concert was broadcast on television. The ensemble has performed with major symphony orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony and Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchester.

Empire Brass has been awarded the Naumburg Prize and the Harvard Music Association Award. It is a frequent guest on nationally syndicated radio programs including “Saint Paul Sunday Morning,” “Traditions,” and “NPR Performance Today,” and has been televised on “Good Morning America,” the “Today Show” and “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.”

Celebrity Series subscriptions are $60 for main floor and first balcony and $40 for second balcony and main floor Rows A and B. Single ticket prices are $22 and $15 for general audiences and $7 for students with valid IDs. For ticket information or an immediate credit card purchase call the School of Music Box Office at 205/348-7111.

The School of Music is a department of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest public liberal arts college in the state, with approximately 5,500 undergraduates and 1,000 graduate students. The College has received national recognition for academic excellence, and the College’s students have been selected for many of the nation’s top academic honors, including 13 Rhodes Scholarships, 14 Goldwater Scholarships, seven Truman Scholarships, and 15 memberships on USA Today’s Academic All-American teams.