United States / Massachusetts
Recordings
- 1976 – Empire Brass Quintet and Friends – American Brass Band Journal
- 1977 – Baroque Brass
- 1977 – Russian Brass
- 1979 – Renaissance Brass
- 1980 – Broadway Brass: Bernstein, Gershwin, Joplin & Sousa
- 1980 – Empire Brass Quintet
- 1980 – Encores
- 1981 – The Empire Brass Plays Annie
- 1986 – A Bach Festival
- 1988 – Empire Brass
- 1988 – Joy to the World, Music of Christmas
- 1989 – Music of Gabrieli
- 1989 – Class Brass
- 1990 – Music for Organ, Brass & Percussion
- 1990 – Royal Brass
- 1991 – Braggin’ in Brass
- 1992 – Romantic Brass
- 1992 – Empire Brass on Broadway
- 1993 – Mozart for Brass
- 1993 – Class Brass – On the Edge
- 1994 – Passage 138 B.C. – A.D. 1611
- 1996 – King’s Court and Celtic Fair
- 1996 – The World Sings: An Empire Brass Christmas
- 1999 – Firedance
- 2002 – The Glory of Gabrieli
- 2003 – Baroque Music for Brass and Organ
- Christmas with the Master Chorale & Empire Brass
- Empire Brass with The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay
Founding members
Charles Lewis, Jr., trumpet
Rolf Smedvig, trumpet
David Ohanian, horn
Norman Bolter, trombone
Sam Pilafian, tuba
Timothy Morrison, Jeffrey Curnow, Mark Inouye, Marc Reese, Derek Lockhart, Eric Berlin – trumpets
Martin Hackleman, Erik Ruske, Luis Garcia, Gregory Miller, Michelle Perry, Victor Sungarian – horn
Donald Sanders, Mark Lawrence, Scott Hartman, Douglas Wright, Darren Acosta, Mark Hetzler, Greg Spiridopoulos – trombone
Kenneth Amis, tuba
Current members
Group Biography
The Empire Brass enjoys an international reputation as North America’s finest brass quintet, renowned for its brilliant virtuosity and the unparalleled diversity of its repertoire. The five musicians – all of whom have held leading positions with major American orchestras – perform over 100 concerts a year in cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington, London, Zurich and Tokyo. With their best-selling recordings on the Telarc label they have introduced an even larger audience worldwide to the excitement of brass music that ranges from Bach and Handel to jazz and Broadway. They are equally at home in the majestically antiphonal works that Gabrieli composed for St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice and the exuberantly show stopping tunes that Richard Rodgers and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote for Broadway. The Empire Brass is the first brass ensemble to win the prestigious Naumberg Chamber Music Award.
In addition to playing across the United States, the Empire Brass has toured the Far East thirteen times, and performs regularly in Europe, twice in Rome within the past eighteen months. It has played to standing-room crowds in the former Soviet Union, where its concerts were broadcast on television. The ensemble has performed with major symphony orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony and Zurich’s Tönhalle Orchester. It regularly visits leading summer festivals including Ravinia, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Saratoga and Chautauqua.
On network television, the Empire Brass has been featured on CBS’s Good Morning America, NBC’s Today Show and Sunday Today and PBS’s Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. It is a regular guest on commercial and public radio networks nationwide, performing on programs such as St. Paul Sunday Morning, Traditions and NPR’s Performance Today.
In December 1987, the Empire Brass became the first ensemble to play at the newly remodeled Carnegie Hall. It also opened the Carnegie Hall Centennial Gala joining forces with members of the New York Philharmonic in the world premiere of Joan Tower’s specially commissioned Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman.
The Empire Brass has served as Faculty Quintet-in-Residence at Boston University for thirteen years, led the Empire Brass Seminar at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute for over twenty years, where students from around the world, including such musical capitals as Vienna and London, come to study with the five musicians. In 1991 it began a new appointment as Visiting Consultants in Brass at London’s Royal Academy of Music. It also leads an annual series of college clinics co-sponsored by the Selmer Company, maker of the Empire Brass’ instruments.
from the Empire Brass website