American Brass Quintet to perform, teach as Hansen artists

The American Brass Quintet will visit Bowling Green State University Sept. 20-22 to present a free public concert and share their musical and professional wisdom as this year’s artists in residence for the Dorothy E. and DuWayne H. Hansen Musical Arts Series. Their residency concludes with an 8 p.m. concert on Sept. 22 in Kobacker Hall at the Moore Musical Arts Center.

Now in its 50th year, the renowned quintet’s current cast includes a connection to BGSU: Trumpeter Kevin Cobb’s late father, Dr. Thomas Berry Cobb, was a longtime faculty member. In addition, as part of its residency the group will work with students at the Toledo School for the Arts, with whose founder, Martin Porter, Cobb studied trumpet. Porter is a BGSU alumnus and former director of public events for the College of Musical Arts.

The other four members of the American Brass Quintet (ABQ) are Louis Hanzlik, trumpet; Eric Reed, horn; Michael Powell, trombone, and John Rojak, bass trombone.

During their Bowling Green residency, they will present a mini recital with a question-and-answer period for BGSU students and local high school students, teach master classes to brass instrument players, work with composition students, conduct a workshop with the graduate brass quintet and give a seminar on careers in music. Their stay concludes with the public concert Sept. 22. All events are free and open to everyone.

ABQ is internationally recognized as one of the premier chamber music ensembles of our time, celebrated for peerless leadership in the brass world. It is the 2013 recipient of Chamber Music America’s highest honor, the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award for significant and lasting contributions to the field. The group has given performances in Asia, Australia, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and all 50 of the United States, and has produced nearly 60 recordings and performed the premieres of more than 150 contemporary brass works. Commissions by the quintet of eminent composers are considered significant contributions to contemporary chamber music and the foundation of the modern brass quintet repertoire. The ABQ’s Emerging Composer Commissioning program has brought forth brass quintets by Gordon Beeferman, Jay Greenberg, Trevor Gureckis and Shafer Mahoney.  

Committed to the promotion of brass chamber music through education, the quintet has been in residence at the Aspen Music Festival since 1970 and at The Juilliard School since 1987. Since 2000, the ABQ has offered its expertise in chamber music performance and training with a program of mini-residencies as part of its regular touring. Designed to offer young groups and individuals an intense chamber music experience over several days, ABQ mini-residencies have been embraced by schools and communities throughout the United States and a dozen foreign countries.

The Dorothy E. and DuWayne H. Hansen Musical Arts Series Fund was established in 1996 to bring significant representatives of the musical arts and creative arts to Bowling Green to share their talent and knowledge with students and community residents. Dorothy Hansen is an alumna of the College of Musical Arts and DuWayne Hansen is a former chair of the Department of Music Education.

Previous series guests have included Marin Alsop, Bill McGlaughlin, Branford Marsalis, Benjamin Zander, Nancy Giles and Bob McGrath.