Kyōdai Brass Quintet
Sunday, May 4 at 7:00pm
First Unitarian Church of Cleveland
21600 Shaker Blvd
Shaker Heights 44122
Music by Praetorius, Daniel Temkin, Viktor Ewald, Collier Jones, and Moondog
The Kyōdai Brass officially came together for the first time in the fall of 2009 in Cleveland, Ohio, though many of the members had already been long time musical partners. Solely comprised of two sets of brothers, the Jones' and the Tanaka's, the group is best known for its eclectic programming, exciting performances, extremely diverse repertoire, and commitment to educating audiences of all ages about live music and the brass idiom throughout the greater Cleveland area. The Kyōdai Brass have performed at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Institute of Music's Mixon Hall, and the magnificent St.Ann's Cathedral amongst others. As the past resident brass quintet at the Fowler's Mill Christian Church, the group gave a number of recitals featuring a wide variety of music; everything from classical favorites to traditional Serbian brass music. In 2010/11, the Kyōdai Brass received a grant from the Cleveland Chamber Music Society which resulted in a number of sponsored outreach performances in public schools, private schools, and juvenile detention centers. They will perform a similar role this February a little farther west, being sponsored by the Detroit Chamber Music Society. The ensemble was the 2012 fellowship brass quintet at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, where they performed extensively and worked with members of the Empire Brass and the New York Brass Quintet. The group was most recently awarded the 2013 Aspen Music Festival brass quintet fellowship.
The Kyōdai Brass is:
Conrad Jones, Trumpet
Hayato Tanaka, Trumpet
Hirofumi Tanaka, French Horn
Gary Jones, Trombone
Douglas Jones, Tuba
The Kyōdai Quintet will be doing a concert as well as a series of school programs May 5-9 sponsored by the Chamber Music Society and coordinated by Annie Fullard, as part of their outreach initiative. This will be followed by a special residency in the Cleveland Heights Public School District by the Cavani Quartet, on behalf of the Chamber Music Society and The Cleveland Institute of Music. They are providing a complete series of school programs for elementary, middle, and high school age children.
Annie Fullard, Artistic Director/Outreach Education Program for Cleveland Chamber Music
The Cleveland Chamber Music Society began their Outreach initiative in 2007, conceived of by Gino Raffaeli, a violinist and former member of the Cleveland Orchestra. At that time, Gino spoke with Annie about initiating a project to bring chamber music into the local schools to support and ignite instrumental music programs by offering first class educational performances. Annie was thrilled to take on this project as a way to not only interact with kids through music but to teach students from The Cleveland Institute how to develop an engaging, inspiring, and motivating educational program based in classical repertoire with additional music from other genres, embracing the idea of teamwork at its core.
To date they have interacted with thousands of children all over North Eastern Ohio. Each year a brass quintet and string quartet are chosen from CIM to participate in the program. This year the Kyōdai Brass Quintet was chosen for the third year in a row. As a special donation to Chamber Music Outreach Fund, the Cavani Quartet will be donating their services to perform throughout the Cleveland Heights School District to support a district-wide revitalization of the instrumental music program.
Chamber music is about empathy, interaction, responsibility, and personal expression, making it a perfect vehicle to communicate with schoolchildren of all ages without barriers.