GomalaNOMS

-
Pictured above is the Gomalan Brass Quintet.  This quintet is one of my favorite groups to listen to, each of these members has ridiculous technique and sound qualities, their performances are passionate and exciting.  

Gomalan Brass Quintet was founded by Marco Pierobon and Marco Braito, trumpets, Nilo Caracristi, horn, Dalmar Nur Hussen, trombone, and Alessandro Fossi, tuba.  In 2000 Gianluca Scipioni took over the trombone position and Oswald Prader took the tuba position.  Alessandro Fossi would return in 2008 but then Stefano Ammannati replaced him shortly after.  In 2001 the group won the international competition "City of Passau"in Germany.  Its members establish a direct and very engaging contact with the public thanks to their theatric performances.  Their repertoire is vast and stylistically well cared for.  The music they perform ranges from the Renaissance to contemporary pieces for brass quintet, practically crossing all eras and musical styles.  In 2001, for the Verdian Celebrations, the Gomalan Brass staged "Aida" by Giuseppe Verdi in the form of musicals, reduced in 55 minutes and only 5 characters, musicians, and singers on the stage. Their interpretations of film music are much appreciated. Music critics and great conductors agree in judging them to be one of the best existing brass quintets. - For more information you should check out their website!

One of my favorite piece that they have performed is an arrangement of John Williams' Schindler's List.  This brass quintet arrangement was done by quintet member Marco Pierobon. 

Another great recording I enjoy listening to is another arrangement, this time from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, arranged by Marco Pierobon. 

I hope you enjoy listening to this group as much as I do! 

Comments

  1. ABEL CentralMay 11, 2019 at 4:54 AM

    I enjoyed the Schindler's list arrangement. By the way, the competition they won was "Preis der Europa-Stadt Passau" which means "Prize of the european town Passau". I had never heard of it. I don't think they hold it any more, but this page shows the past winners: http://www.blechblaeser-wettbewerb.de/english/index2.html

    "

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American NOMS Quintet

-
The American Brass Quintet is one of the leading ensembles of its kind.  They are based in New York and have been extremely successful since they were established in 1960.  One of the many things that makes this quintet unique is that they do not use tuba as their lowest voice, instead they use the bass trombone.  The choice of using bass trombone instead of tuba might have had to with the performance of Baroque and Renaissance music at the time.   Some of the earlier members of this ensemble were involved in New York’s early music scene that included instruments like the cornett and sackbut. However, it is also said that trombonist Arnold Fromme had contacted Harvey Phillips and told him about the American Brass Quintet and wanted him to play tuba in it.  Phillips would have to decline since he had already pledged to the New York Brass Quintet. Although Phillips declined Fromme’s offer he would recommend other tuba players, but Fromme and co-founder Gilbert Cohen decided to organize
Read more

Sotto Voce NOMSSSSSSS

-
Image
In my last post I mentioned the tuba euphonium quartet,  Sotto Voce .    Well, I want to talk about them now!  This group was founded in 1996.  They are internationally known, America's premiere professional quartets of its kind and one of the world's leading low brass ensembles.  Sotto Voce consists of two euphoniums and two tubas.  The euphonium members of this quartet are Demondrae Thurman and Mark Carlson.  The members who play tuba are Mike Forbes and Nat McIntosh.   Sotto Voce has been a blessing to the euphonium and tuba community.  Each of the members of this quartet perform at an extremely high level.  Luckily for us, they have been the center of attention for new music for euphonium and tuba type ensembles.  Many of the compositions that we have today for this type of ensemble comes from them commissioning music and composing music themselves.  Mike Forbes, tuba, has written several pieces that have been featured on their albums.  Composers have also seen what
Read more

Ewazenoms :)

-
Eric Ewazen is an American composer and teacher. He has written music for many different ensembles and solo instruments.  There are some people out there that don't think very highly about his writing, maybe because a lot of his music sounds "the same".  I have to say that I enjoy his style of writing, and have never been bothered by the consistency in his sound that he creates with his writing.  I'd have to describe it as uplifting and mysterious at times. Not too long ago I heard a piece by Eric Ewazen, Grand Canyon Octet .  When I heard this it was being performed by the Juilliard Trombone Choir.  I enjoyed this piece a ton and it was performed impressively by the trombone choir.  Looking into this piece more I discovered that it was originally written for horn octet, I enjoyed it even more! Here are program notes from the composer: "The Grand Canyon Octet was commissioned by Thomas Bacon and the Arizona State University Horn Ensemble, to whom the work i
Read more