Smash Bang Brass Bash

January 26, 2019

We invite you to join us for the inaugural Smash Bang Brass Bash, featuring the Gomalan Brass Quintet from Italy! Brass players of all ages and abilities are welcome. This event will include warm-ups and master classes for individuals and chamber ensembles, mass brass choir reading sessions, and discussions and performances presented by the Gomalan Brass Quintet.

Gomalan Brass Quintet

Gomalan Brass Quintet

When Marco Braito (trumpet), Marco Pierobon (trumpet), Nilo Caracristi (horn), Gianluca Scipioni (trombone), Stefano Ammannati (tuba) – in 1999, “only” five musicians from the world’s most prestigious orchestras (the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Santa Cecilia Academy, Teatro Regio in Turin and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra) – founded the Gomalan Brass Quintet, they didn’t realise that they were creating one of the most successful and entertaining shows of our time. The quintet’s extraordinary musical and virtuoso qualities, according to Zubin Mehta, a repertoire, based on original or existing arrangements, that ranges from Renaissance to contemporary music and movies soundtracks, the theatrical wit of their annually renewed performances have seduced both the audience and the critics, worldwide.

In November 2001, the group won the first prize at the “Town of Passau” International Brass Competition, one of the world’s most prestigious brass awards, receiving enthusiastic praise from international brass celebrities such as Roger Bobo, David Ohanian, Steven Mead, Dale Clevenger and Froydis Ree Wekre. They regularly appear in major concert halls and festivals throughout Italy and have also performed in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Greece and Switzerland. The Quintet has given master-classes at Tanglewood, Toronto University, the Royal Northern College in Manchester, the Royal Scottish Academy and at the Musica Riva Festival, with international broadcasts and acclaimed recordings. Many radios have broadcast concerts and pieces by the Gomalan Brass Quintet, to name but a few: Bayerisches Rundfunk, Radio Vaticana, Radio Classica, Radio Canada and Radio Rai Tre (for whom the group has performed several world premieres). The Quintet has released their first two CDs by Summit Records, and the third one by Naxos is already the most downloaded on classicsonline.com. The fourth one was released to celebrate their first decade.

Acuff Chair of Excellence

The Gomalan Brass Quintet is in residence at APSU as the Acuff Chair of Excellence. In 1985, country music legend Roy Acuff generously established an endowment to enrich the arts community at APSU and in Clarksville Montgomery County. The result was the Roy Acuff Chair of Excellence, which brings regionally and nationally acclaimed artists to APSU to share their expertise with students and the community in a dynamic atmosphere of unrestricted experimentation. The Acuff Chair rotates between APSU's four creative arts areas—Creative Writing, Music, Theatre/Dance, and Visual Art—and has been filled each year with residencies by nationally and internationally known artists since its inception. More information can be found through the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts Acuff Chair of Excellence webpage.

The Gomalan Brass Quintet concert is also sponsored in part by the Clarksville Community Concert Association. Participants who register for the Brass Bash events will receive a complementary ticket to the concert. Additional tickets can be purchased through the Clarksville Community Concert Association or at the door.