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The American Brass Quintet takes the stage of the Williams Center for the Arts 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, along with pianist and composer Billy Childs for the “Dr. Aaron M. Litwak Concert.”
Tickets are free for students, $4 for faculty and staff, and $18 for the public. They can be obtained by calling the Williams Center box office at (610) 330-5009.
There will be a 7 p.m. talk in Williams Center room 108 about the concert. It will be given jointly by Childs and trumpeter Raymond Mase.
Future performers in this year’s Chamber Music series are Orpheus with Yefim Bronfman, Oct. 19, $27; Violinist Elizabeth Field, with Pianist Steven Silverman, Nov. 10, $15; Orpheus with Nikolaj Znaider, Feb. 3, $27; Trio Solisti with Alan Kay, March 12, $18; Orpheus with Dame Felicity Lott, March 28, $30; Emerson String Quartet, April 9, $22. A subscription to the series costs $109, a savings of 14 percent off the single ticket price.
The quintet will perform arrangements for brass of music from the English and Italian renaissance, originally composed by John Ward, William Simmes, and Claudio Monteverdi. They will also perform works by American composers Joan Tower and Eric Ewazen, as well as the new Billy Childs’ commissioned work, “Two Elements: Water and Fire,” with Childs as guest pianist.
Founded in 1960, the American Brass Quintet seeks to promote brass chamber music as a serious chamber music medium. Members of the quintet are Raymond Mase and Kevin Cobb on trumpet, David Wakefield on horn, Michael Powell on trombone, and John Rojak on bass trombone.
In the U. S., the quintet has performed on major concert series in all 50 states including at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. The American Brass Quintet’s foreign touring has taken it throughout Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. In the summer, the quintet has residencies at the Juilliard School as well as the Aspen Music School.
Childs is a two-time Grammy Award-winner who has been honored for his skills in both composing and arranging. Along with creating commissioned works across the country, Childs has also had an extensive solo jazz recording career on piano.
Lafayette’s partner for the concert is 88.1 FM, Lehigh Valley Community Public Radio.
The 2007-2008 Performance Series at Lafayette College is supported in part by gifts from Friends of the Williams Center for the Arts; by provisions of the Josephine Chidsey Williams Endowment, J. Mahlon and Grace Buck Fund, the Croasdale Fund, the Class of ’73 Fund, the Alan and Wendy Pesky Artist-in-Residence Program, the James Bradley Fund, and the Ed Brunswick Jazz Fund; and by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour; the F.M. Kirby Foundation, the Dexter and Dorothy Baker Foundation, and the New England Foundation for the Arts.