Western Plains Arts Association
COLBY — One of America’s longest standing brass quintets is coming to northwest Kansas. Western Plains Arts Association is pleased to bring the Saint Louis Brass Quintet to Colby Community College’s Cultural Arts Center at 3 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 30. Admission is by WPAA season ticket or adults $20, students $10, at the door.
This project is generously funded by the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment of the Arts, and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Locally, the Dane G. Hansen Memorial Foundation, Logan, Kan., is a major contributor to all WPAA programs this season.
Founded in 1964, the Saint Louis Brass Quintet, was originally formed by members of the St. Louis Symphony to play children’s concerts around the St. Louis area. Soon though, they had expanded to present full length concerts funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Missouri Arts Council and the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Now, 54 years and more than 3,000 engagements later, the only original member still in the group — and the only one who actually lives in St. Louis — is trombonist Melvyn Jernigan – who retired from the Saint Louis Symphony after 35 years. The other quintet members hold top positions across the United States. The quintet averages more than 25 engagements per year, including master classes, clinics, school concerts and formal concerts.
Members include: Allan Dean, Trumpet, professor of music, Yale School of Music; Mikio Sasaki, freelance trumpet player in New York; Victoria Knedtson, principal horn of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic; Melvyn Jernigan, trombone player and executive director, Primo Concerts; and Daniel Perantoni, tuba player, professor of music, Indiana University.
The Saint Louis Brass Quintet performs the entire spectrum of great music for brass – from the works of today’s composers to Baroque and Renaissance music transcribed for modern instruments. For many audiences they also offer lighter fare: popular music of the Americas, jazz arrangements of standards by Ellington/Strayhorn, Gershwin and Cole Porter, lighthearted pieces for narrator and brass; and a tongue in cheek survey of the history of the brass instruments.
The group now performs three ten day concert tours throughout the United States each year, plus recording and international touring. The SLBQ was featured at the Norway Brass Band Festival in 1994, at a festival in Bombay, India in 1995, and they performed a two-week concert tour in Japan in 1997. In May of 1999 the quintet toured Mexico, and in October of 2001 they toured Germany. June 2003, they were performing in Sweden.
The SLBQ sees itself foremost as a serious chamber music group, but also recognizes the importance of education and entertainment in its programming. Finding this balance is an exciting challenge that is vital in keeping both the group’s members and its audiences satisfied. Visit the group’s website at saintlouisbrass.com