Fifteen Minutes of Fame: with Nautilus Brass Quintet

Emerging as one of New England's most ambitious musical ensembles, the Nautilus Brass Quintet has quickly established a place for itself in the world of brass chamber music. NBQ was founded in Boston, MA in 2010 with the distinct mission to proliferate the accessibility of cultivated brass chamber music through educational outreach and artistically relevant performance. Nautilus has been grand prize winners at the Rodney Mack and UConn Brass Day competitions, prizewinners at the Plowman competition, and finalists in the J. C. Arriaga and Koetsier competitions. Recent performance highlights include recitals throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, performing at the 2013 Northeast Horn Workshop, a performance of Eric Ewazen’s “Shadowcatcher” with the University of Connecticut Wind Ensemble, and a performance with the new music collaborative NOVA Musica. http://www.nautilusbrass.com/

Concert Dates

  • June 29th, 2014 - Jan Hus Church New York City

15 one-minute selections for Nautilus Brass Quintet

Concert program

  • Stargazing from the Ramparts

    Greg Bartholomew

    The music of award-winning composer Greg Bartholomew, frequently performed throughout North America, Europe and Australia, is available on recordings by the Czech Philharmonic, the Kiev Philharmonic, Connecticut Choral Artists, the Ars Brunensis Chorus, the Langroise Trio, trumpeter James Ackley, and cellists Suzanne Mueller and Ovidiu Marinescu. More: www.gregbartholomew.com.

    Stargazing from the Ramparts was composed in 2014 for the Nautilus Brass.

  • ¡Fabuloso Desfile!

    Erik Branch

    ERIK BRANCH is a native of New York City, and received a BA and MA in Music (Composition) from Hunter College. He lives near Orlando, Florida, where he is active as a pianist, musical director, composer/arranger, operatic tenor, and actor on stage and screen.

    ¡Fabuloso Desfile! (“fabulous parade”/fashion show!”) is a miniature half-time show for a miniature marching band: a flashy first section with “Latin rhythms” for the drum majorettes’ choreography, a jaunty school march unwittingly quoting the Cygne of Saint-Saëns. The original tune returns, and all ends with a brassy finish.

  • Canzonetta

    David Bohn

    David Bohn received degrees in composition from the University of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of Illinois. He currently resides in West Allis, Wisconsin, and is the music director at St. John's Lutheran Church in West Milwaukee. He is the President of the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers.

  • Into The Depths

    Dave Collins

    Dave Collins is a Graduate of Grey College, University of Durham with a First Class Honours Degree in Music. He specialised in acoustical composition with Richard Rijnvos, Sam Hayden and Eric Egan. Dave is the Composer-in-Residence of the RMT Fishburn Band and Composer-in-Association of City of Cardiff (Melingriffith) Band.

    Into The Depths is a programmatic work with a direct link to the name of the ensemble. Submerging instruments in water creates a unique and alien sound-world similar to the depths of the Ocean. The main motif is heroic and poised to suggest bravery as we plunge, Into The Depths.

  • Antiphonal Flourish

    Jay Anthony Gach

    Jay Anthony Gach’s concert music has been critically acclaimed as "witty, virtuosic and accessible", "so exuberant [and] so characterful", "a natural crowd pleaser", "multi-layered, whirling and propulsive". Composer/conductor Lukas Foss described, "his writing for orchestra brilliant beyond words". Hugo Weisgall wrote of him, "a composer... of extraordinary technical command and intellectual grasp of what music is all about".

    Antiphonal Flourish is a short, fanfare for brass quintet featuring antiphonal call and response, contrapuntal and canonic writing.

  • Just a Minute

    Barry Hartglass

    For over 20 years, Barry has worked as a producer, engineer, composer, arranger and musician. He received a BM in Music Engineering from University of Miami, studied composition at Juilliard and is currently pursuing an MA in composition at Hunter College. Barry teaches audio production courses at Hostos Community College.

    “Just a Minute” is a one minute, 12 tone fugue composed specifically for Nautilus Brass Quintet. This lively, atonal work with syncopated jazz-rock rhythms features a 12 tone row as the fugue subject which appears each time starting on a different note (in order) from an inversion of the row.

  • Lackaday"

    James Henry

    James Henry is a composer and trumpeter with roots in Topeka, KS. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Mid America Freedom Band and as Senior Classical Editor for KCMetropolis, an online journal of the arts in the Kansas City, MO, metro area, as well as other musical activities.

    In the busy world of 2014 America, who has time to sit on one’s laurels and enjoy life? Spare a minute—sit back, relax, and watch the interwoven melodies pass by your mind's eye with Lackaday.

  • The Greek god Chronos

    David A. Jones

    David A. Jones is a composer and horn player from Olympia, Washington. He is currently in his junior year of college, studying music composition with Darrell Brown at Brigham Young University - Idaho. He has written works for a variety of ensembles, including wind band, string quartet, marimba quartet, and percussion ensemble, as well as other mixed ensembles.

    The Greek god Chronos is the personification of time in ancient Greek literature. Often associated with the allegory "Father Time," Chronos controls the continual flow of the eternities. This piece, with its simple, driving, clocklike rhythms and melodies, represents the ongoing, relentless flow of time, which ticks ever onward, continually changing and shaping the lives of men.

  • Maybe so…

    Spiros Mazis

    Spiros Mazis holds Degree in Composition with Distinction and First Prize from Athens, and PhD in Music Composition with Thomas Simaku at York University, England. He attended composition seminars with Theodore Antoniou, Iannis Xenakis, Tristan Murail and Marco Stroppa. Eight of his works have been distinguished in composition contests.

    Maybe so… In this piece for brass quintet, I’ve been exploring the harmonic series and the relations of the intervals among their partials. I use some new microtonal fingerings (specially for horn) that are based on my research, “Microtonal Notes for Brass” which is to be published.

  • Cold Shut

    Robert Percy

    Robert Percy is a London-based composer. His music, for a wide variety of idioms, has been performed extensively in the UK, as well as in Europe and the United States. Robert gained his PhD in composition at City University, London, where he currently lectures in orchestral and instrumental studies.

    A ‘cold shut’ is an imperfection in a welded or cast metal joint, caused by exposure to cold during the process. The title relates to the two-part division of this piece and alludes to possible imperfections within it and within the metal from which the instruments are constructed.

  • One Last Breath

    Etienne Rolin

    Etienne Rolin is a French-Amercian composer born in California in 1952. Currently living and teaching in Bordeaux France and expresses his creative music making via contemporary composition, improvisation on basset horn soundpainting and Hindustani music on the Bansuri flutes. www.etiennerolin.com

    One Last Breath invites the Brass quintet to play the first portion of the piece in one breath creating a special tension envelope. The initial chromaticism blossoms to a spectral chord over Bb before fading into staggered breathing. A miniature theater sketch where vocal intrusions accents and muted timbres intermingle.

  • Affirmation

    Juan Maria Solare

    Juan Maria Solare, born 1966 in Argentina, works currently in Germany as composer, pianist (contemporary & tango) and teaching at the University of Bremen and at the Hochschule fuer Kuenste Bremen. His music has been performed in five continents. Thirteen CDs of different performers include at least one piece of him.

    It's titled Affirmation simply because the piece sounds affirmative, as a statement. Furthermore, if you consider what "affirmation" means in a New Age context, you may think of this piece as a musical statement in "present tense", positive, specific and personal. "Personal" taking the quintet as a unity.

  • Hocket Machina

    Ray Strobel

    Ray Strobel studied composition with Leonardo Balada at Carnegie Mellon, receiving degrees in Composition and Music Education. He writes for solo/chamber instruments, band, and both secular and sacred chorus. Ray teaches elementary band at Wilkinsburg School District, and arranges many works for them. He lives just north of Pittsburgh, PA.

    Hocket Machina is based on the medieval technique of “hocket”, sharing a melody between two or more voices sounding alternately. All begin on the same pitch and it develops from there. Maintain a uniform sound when playing one eighth note at a time. The tempo must be minimum 108 bpm.

  • A distant galaxy

    Phil Taylor

    A composer in many genres; Phil Taylor’s electronic ambient works are released on iTunes under the Secret Perdu label, recent compositions have been performed by Dr Liana Valente, Livas Clarinet Quartet, Walking Wiltshire White Horses Project, Artdesamis Piano Trio, H2 Saxophone Quartet, The LivingVoid Project, CoMA Leeds, Courtney Sherman.

    A distant galaxy - a one minute brass quintet...

  • SIDDHARTA

    Marco Vignali

    - High school graduate (2009-2010) - Diploma in trumpet at the Conservatory Luisa D' Annunzio in Pescara (2010-2011) He studied with Fausto Esposito, Mario Scaglione, Dino Tonelli , Luke Falcone , Marco Pierobon , Braito Marco , Daniele Morandini , Roberto Rossi , Gabriel Rosati, Mike Appelbaum . It features artistic collaborations with Andrea Giuffredi , Pierpaolo Pecoriello , Gabriel Rosati . Trumpet of the big bands of the Conservatory of Pescara , with whom he has also played in important events such as the Pescara Jazz . Currently he teaches trumpet at the music academy of Miglianico and at other private schools . Collaborates with various bands, wind orchestras and symphony orchestras in the territory of Abruzzo. He is the founder and musician of the following groups : Five core brass quintet ( brass quintet ) Bruja trio ( Mexican music band ) Balkan Bistro ( klezmer and Balkan music band ) Sardia quartet ( jazz quartet )