The evening of September 19th was a truly enjoyable evening! Seraph Brass graced the stage of the Poncan Theatre with traditional music composed by the masters and new music composed by women and minority composers. Mary Bowden - Trumpet, Raquel Samayoa - Trumpet, Rachel Velvikis - Horn, Victoria Garcia - Trombone and Cristina Dougherty - Tuba formed this impressive group of musicians hailing from various part of the United States with one member from Canada.

The concert began with “Prelude” from the Holberg Suite, op.40 by Edvard Grieg. This perky, exciting composition set the pace showing the audience would be in for an exciting evening. The precision and musical artistry was very impressive which continued throughout the concert.

One of the themes of the concert centered around selections from operas. Verdi’s “Sempre Libera” from La Traviata arranged by Jeff Luke featured a moving trumpet duet representing the plight of Violetta surrendering her freedom to the love of Alfredo. The ever-popular “Nessun Dorma” - the aria from Puccini’s opera Turandot - was uniquely performed by the trombone. An unlikely instrument for this piece, but it was a beautiful rendition.

Music from the masters included Clara Schumann’s “Andante Molto” from Drei Romanzen, Opus 22. Originally written for violin and piano, this was arranged by Noah Dugan and featured the tuba. Closing the first half for intermission was a rousing rendition of Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. The contrasting tempi and technical virtuosity in this performance left the audience eager to hear more!

A Spanish flavor initiated the second half of the program with “Vuelta del Fuego” (Ride of Fire) composed by Kevin McKee. The trumpets added the feel of a mariachi band. “Central Park Morning” by David Chesky suggested the ambiance of New York City without the noise, hustle & bustle. Two trumpets provided the slower paced beauty of Central Park. “Hora Staccato” by Grigoras Dinicu and arranged by Tim Olt . Reena Esmail is a female Indian-American music composer of Indian and Western classical music born in 1983. From her Khirkiyann (Windows): Three Transformations for Brass Quintet, Movement III - “Tuttarana” was featured. This is a conglomeration of two words - the Italian word ‘tutti’ meanning ‘all’ and tarana signifying a specific Hindustani musical form whose Western similarity is ‘scat’ in jazz. The music of another woman composer, Catherine McMichael, was inspired by the constellations and their legends. In Asteria we find “Virgo, the Lover of Justice” - the 2nd of this 3 movement work. A concert highlight was Go! The audience rehearsed the art of double-tonguing with the trumpeter who expertly performed this technique to an amazed audience. Following a standing ovation, the encore was Rossini’s beloved “William Tell Overture” (theme from The Lone Ranger) - always an audience favorite!

Women aren’t widely known to play brass instruments because of the size of the instruments, amount of air needed to produce an excellent tone and specificity of the embouchure (mouth position on mouthpiece). But these ladies certainly commanded their instruments and charmed the audience with their comments. What a truly unique and enjoyable evening of wonderful music performed by an amazing group of professional ladies!