Sounds of the Ancient Olympics
Thursday July 11 2024 at 9am
Music archaeologist Peter Holmes will speak about his new book The Sound of the Ancient Olympics, with a focus in this talk on “Back to the Future: The Trumpet Reinventing Itself, Again.... and again... and again” . For over 600 years, the first contest of the Olympic Games to be settled was for the Games Trumpeter (Salpinktes), and the winners gained great fame and prestige from their success. But this contest wasn’t a static event over the centuries, and the instruments used developed over time. Peter will share new discoveries about the developments of the salpinx of original Olympic games of Ancient Greece, exploring the the background, the instruments and modern analogues of these instruments, such as the very earliest trombone, which will take your eyes and ears back to the Olympia of old. Additionally, there will be discussion and demonstration of the very first known valve trumpet – from the late 16 th Century, over 200 years before the desgins of the modern valved instruments began to take hold.
A dynamic and engaging speaker, Peter works with the European Music Archaeology Project to continue to bring to life instruments from ancient eras. His research into the Carnyx was written up in the New York Times in April 2016; following on that, his book The Horns and Trumpets of the European Iron Age was released in 2022. Holmes first completed a five-year engineering apprenticeship with Rolls Royce Ltd. and later became a Chartered Mechanical Engineer. He then took a degree in geophysics before embarking on a PhD in music archaeology in the 1970s. As an active trumpet player and engineer, he began modifying and then building brass instruments at an early age. The doctorate combined his interests in brass instruments, focusing on instruments before 500 AD. It also combined his interest in tinkering with the application of experimental archaeological techniques to further the understanding of the acoustic world of instruments whose only footprint is physical remains or iconographic representations.
Brass Becomes Gold!
Wednesday July 10 2024 at 7pm
With BRASS BECOMES GOLD!, The Wallace Collection brings to life the sound world of 1850s Paris with a program of newly rediscovered brass chamber music written for the emerging chromatic brass instruments of that era. Playing on original period instruments, they present a narrated concert of exciting original works by Auguste Mimart and Jean-François Bellon, and Julien Tollot’s excellent arrangement for brass quintet (c1858) of Haydn’s Op. 74, No. 3 quartet, “The Rider”, just one of 23 arrangements in Tollot’s Collection des Quatuors d’Haydn for 5 brass instruments.
The program also includes a brand new composition by Luke Whitlock showing off the exceptionally beautiful sound of the cornophones – a family of instruments created by Marthe Besson in the 1880s. These instruments are from a private collection in the UK, and this is the only full concert performance in the US this year by The Wallace Collection. Founded by the world-renowned Scottish trumpeter John Wallace, The Wallace Collection exists to promote the diverse world of brass music. They aim to inspire, entertain, develop, educate and innovate. Equally at home in the music of our own times as well as in the great heritage of brass music stretching back through history, they are passionate about working with young people, the future of our music.
The Wallace Collection is currently ensemble-in-residence at the University of St Andrews, where it is a delivery partner for StAMP (St Andrews Music Participation), the major outreach project of the Laidlaw Music Centre. This extensive project encompasses a performance programme playing the canonic repertory of brass from the sixteenth century to the present day and a Discovering Brass educational programme involving collaboration with Fife local authority primary schools and community brass bands.
CROOKS & KEYS: An Evening of Music with Historic Trumpets
Thursday July 11 2024 at 7pm
CROOKS & KEYS features original trumpet music from the Baroque and Classical eras, the periods before the development of valved brass instruments. Jared Wallis will perform works of Henry Purcell, Giuseppe Torelli, Arcangelo Corelli and Leopold Mozart on the Baroque trumpet, an instrument that relies solely on the trumpeter’s lips, air and talent to achieve incredible florid lines. Stanley Curtis will use a keyed trumpet – a later adaptation of the Baroque trumpet with keys for additional chromatic capability– playing works for keyed trumpet by Agostino Belloli (1778-1839), Josef Kail, Joseph Höffner, and Giuseppe Verdi from the period after the more famous Haydn and Hummel Concertos for trumpet.
Jared and Stan will combine forces to close the concert with Petronio Franceschini’s Sonata for 2 Trumpets. Both share additional information about the instruments and composers during their performance.
Pianist Michiyo Morikawa will provide accompaniment throughout the concert.
Stanley Curtis has developed a career as a trumpeter, teacher, composer, and early- music performer. After studying at the University of Alabama, the Cleveland Institute of Music and in the Netherlands on a Fulbright Scholarship, he received his Doctor of Music from Indiana University in 2005. In 1996, he won third prize in the ITG Altenburg International Baroque Trumpet Competition. Having retired from a 20-year career in the U.S. Navy Band in Washington, D.C., he was appointed trumpet professor at Colorado State University in 2018. From 2022 through 2023, he served as President of the Historic Brass Society. He has given performances and masterclasses throughout the U.S., and in Spain, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Colombia. He has recorded two albums of solo trumpet music: Refracted Light and Orbits of Infinity. Stanley blogs on his own Trumpet Journey website and is a Bach artist.
Dr. Jared Wallis is a versatile performer, scholar, and teaching artist specializing in historic trumpet performance and pedagogy. He has performed with The Kentucky Baroque Trumpets, Sonitus Clarissima Historical Trumpet and Kettledrums, Ensemble Perihipsous, the American Bach Choir, Mountainside Baroque, and Pegasus Early Music. Dr. Wallis currently serves as Assistant Professor of Baroque Trumpet at the Eastman School of Music. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, he has been a featured soloist at the Rochester Early Music Festival, the Vintage Band Festival, and Arts Empowering Life, and was awarded 1 st prize in the 2022 North American Baroque Trumpet Competition. He has presented research and performances for the Historic Brass Society, the National Conference for Undergraduate Research, the American Musicological Society, and the International Trumpet Guild.
Michiyo Morikawa, pianist, holds a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a Professional Studies diploma from the Mannes College of Music. She has performed concerti with the New York Symphonic Ensemble, the Filarmonica de Jalisco, the Sinfonica de Coyoacan, and the UNAM Chamber Orchestra. She is a frequent recitalist in the New York area, Latin America, Europe and Japan. Ms. Morikawa has performed with numerous brass players including trumpeters Stephen Burns, Philip Smith and Thomas Smith of the New York Philharmonic, Raymond Riccomini of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and John Rojak of the American Brass Quintet, Stefan Dohr of the Berlin Philharmonic, and Michael Rossi of the Kennedy Center Opera House.
