MIDLAND Next week, audience members will get a chance to feel the love at the Lone Star Brass Ensemble Chamber Series concert.
The performance is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Jack Rodgers Fine Arts Auditorium at Odessa College.
Taking place just a few days after Valentine’s Day, the concert will center on the theme of romance with its title “All you Need is Love.”
The ensemble will feature many well-known songs, ranging from classical to rock and cinema.
The quintet consists of Eric Baker on trumpet, Ben Fairfield also on trumpet, Scott Millichamp on horn, Stewart Rhodes on trombone and Arturo Galvan on tuba.
This is the second Chamber Series performance from Lone Star Brass for this season with the last one back in December.
The evening’s show will start off with the famous “Marriage of Figaro.”
“This is going to be a fun show for us because with the December holiday program, we had the large brass ensemble,” Fairfield said. “Normally, it’s the five of us in the Lone Star Brass. Since the show is on the 17th, just a few days after Valentine’s day, we put together a program around the central element of love.”
But the entire concert won’t just be centered on romantic love as other pieces from the musical era known as the Romantic Period will also be played which is more of a play on the title.
It’s not necessarily all romantic love, though some of it is,” Fairfield said. “For example, we have the first piece is from the ‘Marriage of Figaro’ so there’s a romantic kind of love. We’re doing some romantic music in the first half from the romantic era which has nothing to do with romantic love except the title.”
The quintet will also be playing music from “The Wizard of Oz” and, as the title of the concert suggests, the Beatles with “All You Need is Love” and “Blackbird.”
“We’re going to do a piece from the great American songbook, a Duke Ellington tune called ‘Satin Doll’ that a lot of people will recognize,” Fairfield said. “It’s songs we love, movies we love, bands we love, stuff like that. We even have the amore march that’s going to open up our second half by Johann Strauss.”
Last week, the members of Lone Star Brass were busy with the West Texas Symphony’s Spotlight Series concert which featured bassoonist Philip Hill at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
“Last week, we did a show where we featured one of our own, West Texas Symphony musician Philip Hill, and he played the bassoon concerto with the orchestra and the orchestra also did a Haydn symphony,” Fairfield said. “We’re back to the five of us in the Lone Star Brass, getting ready for the show.”
Next week’s Chamber Series Concert will be the last one for this season for the Lone Star Brass.
One of the things Fairfield enjoys about doing the Chamber Series performances are the variety of different songs they offer.
“I think when it’s just the five of us, we have a little more flexibility, more freedom to, number one, choose our own repertoire and things that we like to play,” Fairfield said. “The group gets a lot of input on that. It’s pieces that we love so everybody brought in something for that. Then, we also get to work on other musical things. It’s great to mix the chamber music with the work we do with the symphony. I’m glad that we’re still playing trumpets, French horns and tubas but it’s just a different way of playing and thinking of how to approach the music in a smaller chamber setting. It really helps keep us more well-rounded than if we were just playing in the symphony.”
The West Texas Symphony returns with its Pops and Family Series concert which will feature Brad Leali on saxophone on March 4 at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
The Masterworks Series will return with “Rachmaninoff,” featuring Caroline Hong on Piano on April 15 which will also be at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
The season will conclude with “Back to the Future in Concert” on May 20 at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
If you go
- What: Lone Star Brass Ensemble’s “All You Need Is Love.”
- When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17.
- Where: Jack Rodgers Fine Arts Auditorium.
- Where to purchase tickets: tinyurl.com/352mc8n7
