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  Out of this World

Boston Brass with J. Melvin Butler

LRCD1022

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The new millennium is here and audiences and critics agree that the future is Boston Brass. This fresh brass sensation is setting new standards in entertainment from exciting classical arrangements, to breathtaking vocal harmony, to burning jazz standards. Prize winners at the 1992 International Brass Quintet Competition in Narbonne, France, Boston Brass is primed to achieve new levels in brass performance while treating audiences to a musical experience that can encompass all ages. The ensemble's lively repartee, touched with humor and personality, bridges the vast ocean of classical formality to treat audiences with fun times, exciting knowledge and a love of all types of music deftly exhibited by the dashing performers. 

Boston Brass has transcended the traditional mores of brass ensemble literature and has pioneered a new generation of music that sets out to achieve one simple goal: entertain at all costs with blistering precision. Whether they are performing solo or with a symphony orchestra, the fun and love exhibited from this group is uniquely infectious and keeps audiences on their feet demanding encore after encore.Performing over 90 concerts annually, the members of Boston Brass have displayed their skills in such cities as New York, Portland, Seattle, Philadelphia, Detroit, Dallas, San Antonio, Minneapolis, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. Commitment to education is a high priority for Boston Brass as they have conducted master classes at colleges and universities around the country including University of Connecticut, Syracuse University, Boston College, Northwestern College, and Notre Dame. Along with their instrument sponsor, C.G. Conn, Boston Brass has also presented clinics and concerts at regional educational conferences in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Texas. 

In addition to being featured on National Public Radio's "Performance Today," Boston Brass has recorded several albums. Two of these exciting albums appear on the Summit Records label: Stealing the Show, a collection of overtures and Young Fogeys, a collage of jazz and swing favorites.

The summer of 2000 will prove to be an exciting time as Boston Brass teams up with the legendary jazz recording genius of Rudy van Gelder. This collaboration will further explore the innovative jazz styles that have propelled Boston Brass to the forefront of popular chamber music.

 

 

J. Melvin Butler has been Organist/Choirmaster of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle since 1992.  At St. Mark’s he is responsible for the entire music program which includes directing three choirs and playing the four-manual Flentrop organ.  He is also Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington where he teaches organ improvisation.  From 1972 through 1991 he was Organist/Choirmaster of the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY.  During that time he was also Associate Professor of Church Music at the Eastman School of Music, a violist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Director and Conductor of the Rochester Bach Festival Chorus.  From 1968 to 1972 he was violist with the U. S. Navy String Quartet and Organist of the First Congregational Church in Washington, DC.                

As organist, Dr. Butler has performed extensively in the United States and Great Britain; his New York City debut was in 1971, and his London debut was in 1989 at St. Paul's Cathedral. Butler has also performed as baroque violist and harpsichordist with the Genesee Baroque Players in Upstate New York.  Also a published composer, his works have been performed throughout the United States.  In 1983 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Traveling Fellowship by the New York City branch of the English-Speaking Union for choral conducting study in England and Scotland.  He often presents master classes and lectures on various aspects of church music, choral conducing, and hymn playing and has been a featured performer/lecturer at several AGO conventions.  Originally from Burlington, NC, Butler received the Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music as an organ student of Garth Peacock, and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Eastman School of Music where he studied organ with David Craighead.

 

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer  has said of his playing:

“There was no doubt about Butler’s capabilities.  His performances....gave ample evidence not only of his technical ability but his creative use of registrations.” 

 

 

 

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