FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 22, 2005

CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu

ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA'S BRASS ENSEMBLE TO PERFORM AT DRAKE

The 14-musician Brass Ensemble of Amsterdam’s world-renowned Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra will perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, in Drake University's Performing Arts Hall in the Harmon Fine Arts Center, 25th Street and Carpenter Avenue.

The program will include music for combinations of brass instruments as well as the entire ensemble playing together. Although the program begins with antiphonal music of Gabrieli, the repertoire focuses on the 20th century, with composers such as Ravel, Prokofiev, Hindemith, George Delerue, the Dutch-born Jan Koetsier and Hans Werner Henze, as well as Ennio Morricone, represented by an arrangement of his score for "Once upon a Time in the West."

The RCO Brass Ensemble also will perform two pieces commissioned for the group's second U.S. tour: a work by RCO timpanist Nick Woud and "Night and Dawn" by New York-based Raphael Mostel, nephew of Broadway star Zero Mostel. "Night and Dawn" was commissioned in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands from Nazi occupation and has been underwritten by The Netherland-America Foundation. The anniversary falls on May 5, 2005.

Members of the RCO Brass Ensemble also will conduct master classes and instrument workshops, which are open to the public, from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, in the Harmon Fine Arts Center. These activities are made possible with the support of the Donald Blakeslee Fund for Master Classes of the American Friends of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The fund honors the American-born Blakeslee, who died in March 2004 after a 40-year career as principal tuba player of the RCO.

This is the second U.S. tour for the RCO Brass Ensemble. During its 2003 tour of the northeast, a critic wrote that “If you can't hear the whole Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a concert by its brass section is a next-best thing." Another critic praised the ensmble's "velvety smooth" sound and "dazzling display of virtuosity, stylishness, musicianship and all the other good things of concert life."

The RCO Brass Ensemble tour is being organized by the not-for-profit American Friends of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a group formed 10 years ago to help create an annual presence in America for this truly world-class orchestra. During non-tour years for the Orchestra, the AF-RCO has begun bringing over RCO ensembles, to showcase members of the orchestra as master musicians and teachers in both usual tour cities as well as cities and college towns that would not normally have the chance to share in the “RCO tradition” – such as, this year, Evanston, Ill., Des Moines and Grinnell, Iowa.

Tickets for the Drake concert, which are $15 for the general public and $7 for students, senior citizens and those with a Drake ID, are available at the Drake Fine Arts Box Office, (515) 271-3841.

The concert is made possible by a gift from the late Earle Ferguson, an accomplished musician and attorney who worked his way through Drake and Drake Law School during the Great Depression by playing the piano at local radio stations and the Younkers Tea Room.
About the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Around the globe, the "velvet" strings, the "golden" tone of the brass and what is often described as the "particularly Dutch" timbre of the woodwinds have won the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra its exceptional place amongst that tiny handful of world-famous, top orchestras. Their many tours and nearly a thousand recordings to their credit have also played their part.

The great Latvian-born maestro Mariss Jansons became the RCO’s chief conductor in September 2004, succeeding Riccardo Chailly, who had served the orchestra as chief conductor since 1988. In 1999, for his own outstanding services to the orchestra over the years, Chailly’s predecessor, Bernard Haitink, was appointed conductor laureate of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The rich repertoire of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is highlighted by its performances of late romantic masters, notably Mahler and Bruckner, as well as by its close collaboration with contemporary composers.

The 14 members of the RCO Brass Ensemble (2005) are:

TRUMPETS
Frits Damrow
Peter Masseurs
Hans Alting
Bert Langenkamp

HORNS
Jacob Slagter (also conducting)
Jasper De Waal
Fons Verspaandonk
Jaap van der Vliet

TROMBONES
Ivan Meylemans (also conducting)
Jorgen van Rijen
Nico Schippers
Bart Claessens

BASS TROMBONE
Raymond Munnecom

TUBA
Perry Hoogendijk

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