Germany
Mannheim Brass Official Website
Recordings
- 1998 – Brass Pieces
- 2002 – Boundless
- 2007 – Brass 5.1
- 2012 – Mannheim Brass ID
Group Biography
The Mannheim Brass Quintet has been one of the leading German brass quintets since it was founded over 30 years ago. The ensemble consists of solo winds from the major Baden-Württemberg opera orchestras in Mannheim, Stuttgart and Karlsruhe as well as professors from the Mannheim and Detmold music academies. In addition to their orchestral and teaching activities, they are all enthusiastic chamber musicians for whom there are almost no musical genre boundaries. Whether festively shiny baroque trumpet sounds or contemporary original works of the 21st century, pop, tango to jazz – MBQ knows no boundaries. The five musicians are constantly looking for new musical challenges. Ideally, the ensemble has an accomplished arranger in its own ranks in the form of its trombonist Matthias Gromer, who meanwhile “tailors a large part of the musicians’ repertoire”. Therefore, with its exclusive programming, the MBQ can always offer its audience unique concert experiences.
Enthusiastic reactions from the public and the press are impressive proof of this.
Prizes at international competitions, in 1991 in Passau and 1997 in Moers, underline the high artistic level of the ensemble. In 2000 the MBQ took second place in the world’s most important and most demanding quintet competition in Narbonne / France and thus achieved the best result of a German brass quintet in the history of this competition!
Always on the lookout for something new, Mannheim Brass has also been performing as a sextet for several years. Together with Prof. Reinhold Friedrich, one of the most sought-after trumpet soloists of our time, the MBQ plays original works for solo trumpet / cornet and brass quintet. This “unique concert of its kind” (RNZ October 7, 2005) is enthusiastically received at various major brass festivals such as the German Brass Academy Krefeld or the Sauerland Autumn and is documented in a virtuoso manner on the 3rd CD of the ensemble BRASS 5.1.
In addition to the recording of the now 4 highly praised CDs, the MBQ has always been committed to the interpretation of contemporary brass literature, in addition to numerous world premieres by Kantscheli, Michel and Gromer and German premieres of Schnyder.
In the future, too, the MBQ will refute the old clichés of the supposedly inflexible brass with exciting new projects and varied programs by bringing joy to its audience with highly virtuoso concerts.