ABOUT CANADIAN BRASS

Friends Chuck Daellenbach and Gene Watts first came together in 1970 to form a brass quintet — a chamber music setting not entirely new, but never before having garnered the success and storied career Canadian Brass would achieve over the next 40 years. Initially, Gene took on the role of developing new repertoire while Chuck was the moving force in marketing, publishing and managing the business. Three empty chairs were quickly filled and together, the group’s imagination and consummate musicianship elevated the art of the brass quintet to what it is today. Here was not only an opportunity to explore the possibilities of an all-brass chamber group but a challenge to bring the sound and the excitement of brass music to new audiences.

Masters of concert presentations, Canadian Brass has developed a uniquely engaging stage presence and rapport with audiences. Each of their concerts will show the full range from trademark Baroque and Dixieland tunes to new compositions and arrangements created especially for them – from formal classical presentation to music served up with lively dialogue and theatrical effects. The hallmark of any Canadian Brass performance is entertainment, spontaneity, virtuosity and, most of all, fun – but never at the expense of the music: Whatever the style, the music is central and performed with utmost dedication, skill and excellence.

With a discography of over 130 albums and an extensive world-wide touring schedule, Canadian Brass is an important pioneer in bringing brass music to mass audiences everywhere. They have sold well over two million albums worldwide, with 1.2 million sold in the Nielsen Soundscan era alone (since 1991). They continue to score Billboard chart positions — like with their rousing recording of patriotic songs and marches, Stars & Stripes: Canadian Brass Salute America, which spent eight weeks in the Top 25 on the Billboard Classical Chart, peaking at #2! Touring legends with an enthusiastic fan base, the Canadian Brass play to packed houses everywhere throughout the USA, Canada, Japan and Europe. They have also toured Australia, the Middle East, the Soviet Union and South America. They were the first brass ensemble from the West to perform in the People’s Republic of China (where they returned for a five-city tour to great acclaim in the spring of 2010 and several visits after this, including an appearance on Hunan TV for Chinese New Year), as well as the first brass group to take the main stage at the venerable Carnegie Hall. On numerous occasions Canadian Brass has been invited by the Canadian Government to play for visiting heads of states, becoming one of Canada’s greatest resources and musical ambassadors.

Millions of television viewers have had Canadian Brass in their homes with appearances on The Tonight Show, Today and Entertainment Tonight, and recently to more than half a billion viewers for Chinese New Year on China’s most popular station. They have appeared as guest artists on Evening at Pops with John Williams and the Boston Pops, Beverly Sills’ Music Around the World, numerous PBS specials, including a celebrated appearance on Sesame Street, and are frequent guests of many major symphony orchestras. Canadian Brass were the featured artists on the soundtrack to the 1988 film The Couch Trip, starring Dan Aykroyd and Walter Matthau. Consummate artists, the quintet has also created unique and interactive videos that have gained an international audience, including a series of DVDs featuring the brass in concert and teaching. They are on the cutting edge of technology, offering their fans multimedia airplay, downloads and YouTube videos and streaming opportunities, as well as digital applications with iPhone and other smartphone carriers. You can find them twittering and on Facebook with their fanbase growing daily!

The varied Canadian Brass repertoire features brass standards as well as a wide-ranging library of original arrangements. These include 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. Having started with a very limited base, Canadian Brass has created their own musical world by transcribing, arranging and commissioning more than 600 works, including critically acclaimed compositions from Michael Kamen, Luther Henderson, Bramwell Tovey, Don Gillis and more. They have transformed a previously neglected group of instruments with a limited repertoire into a versatile and vital ensemble that can play everything from Gabrieli to Gershwin! Canadian Brass is especially noted for their famous Holiday Concerts at Christmastime and was at the forefront of re-establishing Scott Joplin with today’s audiences through their research, arrangements and recordings of his “rags” and other works.

Education plays a key role in the story of Canadian Brass, and each member is uniquely attuned to training the next generation of players. On their travels around the world, they often pause for masterclasses and are more than happy to work with students and young audiences. Canadian Brass is currently Ensemble in Residence at the University of Toronto after having been Chamber Quintet-in-Residence for many years at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, and has created an innovative brass summer course at the Eastman School of Music. Their support of education is also clearly viewed in their outreach and interaction with El Sistema, the acclaimed global music education program in Venezuela.

In conjunction with the Hal Leonard Corporation, the Canadian Brass have made available their extensive library of brass music for performers of all levels as well as learning tools. Since 1998 Canadian Brass has been a recording artist at Opening Day Entertainment Group (ODEG) (distributed by IDLA) releasing over 25 CDs on the imprint to date. Opening Day is owned and run by Chuck Daellenbach together with his wife, MB. Canadian Brass sheet music and recordings are available in their online store.

With four decades under their belts, Canadian Brass continues to thrill audiences around the world — and they don’t look like they are letting up anytime soon!

Canadian Brass is: founding member Chuck Daellenbach (tuba), Brandon Ridenour and Caleb Hudson (trumpets), Achilles Liarmakopoulos (trombone) and Jeff Nelsen (horn). The Canadian Brass is represented by IMG Artists in New York.

Learn more about Canadian Brass at canadianbrass.com

ABOUT EMERSON STRING QUARTET

The Emerson String Quartet has maintained its status as one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles for more than four decades. “With musicians like this,” wrote a reviewer for The Times (London), “there must be some hope for humanity.” The Quartet has made more than 30 acclaimed recordings, and has been honored with nine GRAMMYs® (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year” award. The Quartet collaborates with some of today’s most esteemed composers to premiere new works, keeping the string quartet form alive and relevant. The group has partnered in performance with such stellar soloists as Reneé Fleming, Barbara Hannigan, Evgeny Kissin, Emanuel Ax, and Yefim Bronfman, to name a few.

The Emerson String Quartet’s 2019-2020 season, which began with a seven-city tour of Australia, included a number of high-profile projects. The Quartet made appearances at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, Friends of Chamber Music in Vancouver, Wharton Center for Performing Arts in East Lansing, MI, South Mountain Concerts, Wooster Chamber Music, Chamber Music Cincinnati, Chamber Music Louisville and Friends of Music Concerts in Millwood, NY. Overseas, the Quartet embarked on two European tours, with stops in Serbia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Denmark.

The Quartet’s extensive discography includes the complete string quartets of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bartok, Webern, and Shostakovich, as well as multi-CD sets of the major works of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Dvorak. In October 2020, the group releases a recording of Schumann’s three string quartets for the PENTATONE label. The ensemble also has recorded music by Tchaikovsky, Smetana, Debussy, Ravel, Barber, and Ives. In April of 2019, the Quartet joined forces with GRAMMY®-winning pianist Evgeny Kissin to release their debut collaborative album for Deutsche Grammophon, recorded live at a sold-out Carnegie Hall concert in 2018.

Formed in 1976 and based in New York City, the Emerson String Quartet was one of the first quartets to have its violinists alternate in the first chair position. The Quartet, which takes its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, balances busy performing careers with a commitment to teaching, and serves as Quartet-in-Residence at Stony Brook University.  In 2013, cellist Paul Watkins — a distinguished soloist, award-wining conductor, and devoted chamber musician —joined the original members of the Quartet to form today’s group. In the spring of 2016, the State University of New York awarded full-time Stony Brook faculty members Philip Setzer and Lawrence Dutton the status of Distinguished Professor, and conferred the title of Honorary Distinguished Professor on part-time faculty members Eugene Drucker and Paul Watkins.  The Quartet’s members previously had received honorary doctorates from Middlebury College, the College of Wooster, Bard College, and the University of Hartford.  In January of 2015, the Quartet received the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, Chamber Music America’s highest honor, in recognition of its significant and lasting contribution to the chamber music field.

The Emerson String Quartet enthusiastically endorses Thomastik strings.

emersonquartet.com

ABOUT TESSA LARK AND
MICHAEL THURBER

Lark and Thurber met years ago as alumni of From the Top. They began developing their duo collaboration in 2016 after a one-off performance at an event for WQXR in New York City. The two quickly realized how much they had in common musically.

“This duo is a place for us to explore our varied musical influences,” says Lark. “I grew up in Kentucky playing bluegrass long before I started my career as a classical musician, so I’ve always longed for an outlet to integrate my American music roots into my performances.” Thurber adds, “Our diverse musical appetite is what has always drawn Tessa and me together. The fiddle and bass are both such versatile instruments and have played vital roles in so many different musical traditions around the world. It feels very natural to explore the full range of our musical heritage and not be bound by genre.”

Outside of their duo, Lark and Thurber have enjoyed successful careers of their own. In the classical music world, Tessa has earned many of the top honors available to young artists, including a GRAMMY nomination for her 2019 recording of Michael Torke’s Sky: Concerto for Violin with the Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra; a 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship; a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant; Silver Medal in the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis; and a First-Place finish in the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition. Michael has a reputation as one of the most versatile musical talents of his generation. Whether he’s playing bass on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, composing music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, co-founding the smash YouTube channel CDZA, or hosting his Thurber Theater variety show at Joe’s Pub in New York City, Thurber’s musical voice defies genre and category.

In their respective careers thus far, Tessa and Michael have had the privilege of collaborating with some of the world’s leading musicians in a wide variety of genres, among them Mitsuko Uchida, Edgar Meyer, Itzhak Perlman, and Mark O’Connor (Tessa), and Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, Vulfpeck, Jon Batiste, and CeeLo Green (Michael).

The duo’s debut album, Invention, which intersperses arrangements of J.S. Bach’s Two-Part Inventions with original compositions by Lark, Thurber, and Eddie Barbash, was released on August 8, 2019.

The duo Tessa Lark & Michael Thurber is represented worldwide by New York-based Sciolino Artist Management.

For more information, visit Larkandthurber.com.