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Founded 19 years ago, Spanish Brass has earned an international reputation for the quality of its playing, reaching across boundaries of geography and style.
This accomplished quintet visited the University of Louisville School of Music Saturday night, part of the International Brass Chamber Music Festival the school is playing host to through tomorrow. The group comprises trumpeters Carlos Beneto Grau and Juanjo Serna Salvador, hornist Manuel Perez Ortega, trombonist Indalecio Bonet Manrique and tubist Sergio Finca Quiros -- all of whom understood how to blend without sacrificing their distinctive individual personalities.
Compared with chamber music for string ensembles, brass chamber music tends to rely heavily on arrangements of works composed originally for other instrumental combinations. So it was no surprise to encounter a transcription for brass quintet of J.S. Bach's Violin Concerto, BWV 1041, where the original string textures gave way to a lively rethinking of appropriate tone color.
Here, as in much of the Comstock Concert Hall program, Spanish Brass impressed by being able to attack precisely, but ever so softly. Anyone thinking that the trumpet is most comfortable at forte and above should hear how these musicians, without ever sacrificing the potency of particular phrases, could emphasize dynamics going in the reverse direction.
The quintet's members played with superb, disciplined technique in which balances were shrewdly judged. These artists cast aside any implied limitations of five brass instruments. Their enthusiasm, and their commitment to their musical cause, made them the best kind of ambassadors for repertoire that deserves wider recognition. - Louisville Courier Journal
"The SPANISH BRASS is one of the most exciting and artistic brass quintets to come on the scene in recent years . . . The ensemble members perform with familiar elegance and ease of style. The rapid tonguing and wonderful lyricism combined with the incredible group musical sensitivity and responsiveness make for a gloriously brilliant performance." —Michael Tunnell
- INTERNATIONAL TRUMPET GUILD JOURNAL
“Spanish Brass worked their magic from the opening chords . . . they made child´s play of the toughest passages.” - The Brass Gazette
“Brilliant technique, clear and convincing phrasing . . . brought the listener into the music in a relaxed and enjoyable way . . . A magnificent ensemble, a brilliant winner!” - BRASS BULLETIN
Discography
The Best of Spanish Brass (Marquis, Canada, 2009)
Retaule de Nadal with the Orfeó Valencià Navarro Reverter (Anacrusi – Spain, 2006)
Metàl.lics (L'Auditori, Spain, 2006)
Gaudí'um (Anacrusi, Spain, 2005)
Absolute with Christian Lindberg and Ole E. Antonsen (Cascavelle, Switzerland, 2004)
Caminos de España (Cascavelle, Switzerland, 2003)
Delicatessen (Anacrusi, Spain, 2002)
Spanish Brass Luur Metalls & Friends (Cascavelle, Switzerland, 2001)
La Escalera de Jacob (Anacrusi, Spain, 2000)
No Comment (Cascavelle, Switzerland, 1998)
Luur-Metalls Spanish Brass Quintet (Disques du Solstice, France, 1996)
Photos
Bio
In 1989 five Spanish musicians created SPANISH BRASS-an innovative project that quickly gained world renown for its performances, educational activities and creative collaborations. After they won the First Prize in the 1996 Narbonne (France) International Brass Quintet Competition, the most prestigious event of its kind in the world, trumpeter Bernard Soustrot said, “Of all the First Prize winners of the Narbonne Competition, the Spanish Brass is the best since the competition was founded in 1986.”
SPANISH BRASS played over 40 concerts in the United States in 2008-09. They given hundreds of concerts across the globe, in such prestigious events and venues as the Great American Brass Band Festival, New York Brass Conference, Juilliard School of Music, Ithaca College, Festival de Musique de Radio-France, Granada International Festival, Lucerne Festival, Cheju Summer Festival (Korea), Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (Germany), National Auditorium (Madrid), Palau de la Música (Barcelona), Kalavrita Festival (Greece), International Horn Society, Merano Brass Festival and Trento Philharmonic (Italy), Barcelona Auditorium, Festival de Inverno de Brasília, and countless others.
With their versatile programming and state-of-the-art staging, SPANISH BRASS has created such shows as Concierto del desconcierto (A Disconcerting Concert), Metàlolics (educational concert), Brassiana (with jazz trio), and Make a Brazz Noise Here (a tribute to Frank Zappa). They have recorded over a dozen CDs and DVDs.
SPANISH BRASS has been in the forefront of international music education, giving courses and master-classes with the Spanish National Youth Orchestra. the Youth Orchestras of Catalonia, Valencia, Andalucía and Madrid, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Trumpet Lounge (Japan), the Showa School for Performing Arts (Japan), Lieksa Brass Week (Finland), the Eastman School of Music, University of Georgia, Venezuelan Youth Orchestra, Dartington International Summer School (England), International Winter Music Festival of Brasilia (Brazil), Ibero-American Cultural Festival (Puerto Rico), etc. SPANISH BRASS also runs two major brass festivals in Spain, the SBALZ Festival in Alzira and the Spanish BrasSurround Torrent
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