Published: March 29, 2018
Philadelphia Brass to Give Final Performance in UT’s 2017-2018 Sykes Chapel Concert Artist Series April 8
On Sunday, April 8, The University of Tampa’s 2017-2018 Sykes Chapel Concert Artist Series will conclude with a performance by the Philadelphia Brass, called “one of the gems of Philadelphia’s cultural life” by NPR’s Martin Goldsmith. The concert begins at 2 p.m. in the Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith and Values and is free and open to the public.
The concert will have a special emphasis on American music, featuring works by Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington and Frank Loesser, among others.
This brass quintet from Philadelphia is made up of the area’s finest brass musicians: Brian Kuszyk and Steve Heitzer, trumpets; Anthony Cecere, horn; Robert Gale, trombone; and Scott Mendoker, tuba.
As a group, these musicians have amassed decades of experience playing in such groups as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the St. Louis Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony and the Boston Pops.
Together they play in an ensemble, founded in 1988, dedicated to performing the extensive literature for brass quintet from all periods and styles, from Bach to Ellington. The group has been active in commissioning new music, including Daniel Pinkham’s Creation of the World, a large work for brass, organ, choir and narrator, a project done in 1995 in collaboration with 13 presenters across the country.
The group has conducted educational teaching residencies and programs at Lehigh University, Villanova University and Elizabethtown College, and has played numerous benefit concerts for Habitat for Humanity, Cure Autism Now and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The concert is free, but seating is limited. Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance. Parking is available on campus.
For more information about the event, go to www.ut.edu/sykeschapel, or contact Haig Mardirosian, artistic director for the Sykes Chapel Concert Artist Series, at hmardirosian@ut.edu.
On Friday, March 30, The University of Tampa will welcome pianist Frederick Moyer — hailed by The New York Times as “first-class” and The Milwaukee Journal as “a superstar pianist” — for a guest recital. The concert, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Plant Hall Grand Salon.
The program for the performance will include works by Franz Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Oscar Peterson.
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