Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Bryn Mawr Organist JEFFREY BRILLHART Joins CANADIAN BRASS in Verizon Hall, March 10

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

As part of The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ Series

 

Dressed in black suits coupled with white athletic shoes, the Canadian Brass, which performs works in the classical repertoire, with daring leaps into jazz and popular standards, will be joined by renowned organist Jeffrey Brillhart on March 10, 2012 at 3 p.m. in Verizon Hall. On the heels of their latest album release, Canadian Brass Takes Flight (January 31, 2012), this special organ and brass program will contain works from their recent album, along with new arrangements and collaborations with the impressive talents of Brillhart, the director of music and fine arts at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.

 

The program will include J.S. Bach’s thrilling Prelude and Fugue in D minor, a new arrangement of Brahms’ beautiful Chorale Preludes, Gabrieli’s famous antiphonal Canzoni’s, and rarely heard British composer John Ellis’ Prayer for Understanding, plus works by Faure and Vierne. Other popular works on the program will include Scheidt’s Galliard Battaglia, Kompanek’s Killer Tango and “Del” Staiger’s Carnival of Venice.

 

Canadian Brass Takes Flight marks the quintet’s first recording with all of the new permanent members of the ensemble – Eric Reed, Chris Coletti, Brandon Ridenour, Achilles Liarmakopoulos (a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, replacing the recently retired founding member, Eugene Watts) and original founding member Chuck Daellenbach. It is also the first non-piano release on the Steinway label. The album features favorite encores, new arrangements, and world premieres performed with the traditional Canadian Brass sense of imagination and consummate musicianship on tuba, trumpet, trombone and horn.

 

 “These are the men who put brass music on the map: with their unbeatable blend of virtuosity, spontaneity and humor, they brighten the rosters of concert halls, international festivals and orchestra series throughout the world. Their numerous recordings, frequent television appearances and tireless efforts in the realm of music education have resulted in vast new audiences for the art of the Canadian Brass.” —The Washington Post

 

 Tickets for Canadian Brass with Jeffrey Brillhart are available at $25 to $45, and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center Box Office located on Broad and Spruce streets, Philadelphia, Pa. (open daily from 10am to 6pm, later on performance evenings).

 

Jeffrey Brillhart serves as principal organist and oversees several different choirs at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian church.  He is also the artistic director of Philadelphia's famed Singing City Choir and serves on the music faculty at Yale University. He has served as special music advisor to The Philadelphia Orchestra and taught master classes at the Curtis Institute of Music. A proud native of Iowa, Brillhart held his first position as a church organist at the age of 11. He received his Bachelor of Church Music degree from Drake University and a Master of Performance and Literature degree from the Eastman School of Music.

 

Organist Jeffrey Brillhart also identifies as a pianist, harpsichordist, conductor and singer. His musical engagements and studies have taken him to Paris, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, Birmingham, Waco, Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York City, Iowa City, Des Moines, Walla Walla, and Worcester. Brillhart’s work with Singing City provides artistic leadership for a rich program of concerts, educational instruction in local schools, and outreach to diverse communities. During his tenure, the choir has performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, traveled to Cuba and Northern Ireland, and worked with such internationally renowned artists as Helmuth Rilling, Dave Brubeck, Nick Page, Moses Hogan, Andre Thomas, Anton Armstrong, and Weston Noble, and Rossen Milanov.

 

Since the ensemble’s formation in 1970, the style and enormous musical repertoire of the Canadian Brass has come to define what brass chamber music is today. Their performances feature the works of Renaissance and Baroque masters, classical works, marches, holiday favorites, ragtime, Dixieland, Latin, jazz, big band, Broadway, and Christian music as well as popular songs and standards. The ensemble’s uniquely engaging stage presence creates a rapport with audiences that always puts the music at center stage and highlight entertainment, spontaneity, virtuosity and, most of all, fun.

 

Four decades in the making and still going strong, the Canadian Brass has toured throughout the United States, Japan, Europe and Canada, serving as one of the country’s greatest musical ambassadors. They have transcribed, arranged and commissioned more than 200 works, including critically acclaimed compositions from Michael Kamen, Luther Henderson, Bramwell Tovey and Don Gillis. The ensemble boasts a discography of over 90 albums, and most recently held a position on the Billboard Classical Chart with Stars & Stripes: Canadian Brass Salute America for eight weeks during the summer of 2010.

 

Canadian Brass is a chamber quintet-in-residence at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, and runs an innovative brass summer course at the Eastman School of Music.

 

“A jubilant program...Brillhart is an aristocrat of this least manageable of all the keyboards...his sense of timing is impeccable and he phrases with finesse.” –Philadelphia Inquirer

 

 

Kimmel Center, Inc., a charitable, not-for-profit organization, owns, manages, supports and maintains The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater, Innovation Studio and the Merck Arts Education Center. Kimmel Center, Inc. also manages the Academy of Music, owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and the University of the Arts Merriam Theater. Kimmel Center, Inc.’s mission is to operate a world class performing arts center that engages and serves a broad audience which includes providing arts in education, community outreach and a rich diversity of programming. The 2011/2012 season is sponsored by Citi. For additional information, visit kimmelcenter.org.

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