Mannes School Brass Ensembles Perform March 25

The Mannes School of Music Brass Ensemble will perform Sunday, March 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the University’s Houlihan-McLean Center.
The Mannes School of Music Brass Ensemble, directed by Mark Gould, with The University of Scranton Singers and organist Timothy Smith will perform Sunday, March 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Houlihan-McLean Center. Admission is free.
The Mannes School of Music Brass Ensemble, directed by Mark Gould, with The University of Scranton Singers and organist Timothy Smith will perform Sunday, March 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Houlihan-McLean Center. Admission is free.

Performance Music at The University of Scranton will welcome the Mark Gould-directed Mannes School of Music Brass Ensemble to the campus on Sunday, March 25.

The concert, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Houlihan-McLean Center, Mulberry Street and Jefferson Avenue, downtown Scranton, will also feature The University of Scranton Singers and organist Timothy E. Smith. Admission to the concert is free, with seating on a first-come, first-seated basis.

According to Performance Music Conductor and Director Cheryl Y. Boga, this will mark the eighth time Performance Music has collaborated with a conservatory brass ensemble directed by Gould, who served as principal trumpet for the Metropolitan Opera from 1974 to 2003.

“He’s here at least once or twice a semester. He founded the Scranton Brass Orchestra and Brass Seminar with me, and has performed with us every Noel Night for the last 7 years” Boga said of Gould, who also serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School.

Over the years, Gould has brought brass conservatory players from Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music to the University. This will mark the first Scranton visit for students from Mannes, where Gould has directed the Brass Ensembles since last year.

Part of The New School in New York City, Mannes has been in existence for more than a century and is among the country’s premier music conservatories, with programs at the pre-college, undergraduate and graduate level.

The Mannes players will be collaborating for the first time with the 40-plus-member University Singers, a mixed choir founded more than half a century ago and made up of students from majors spanning the curriculum. All enrolled Scranton students are eligible for membership in the Performance Music ensembles, which include both vocal and instrumental groups.

Tim Smith, meanwhile, serves as the organist and director of music at Scranton’s Covenant Presbyterian Church, and is the university organist at Columbia University.

“He’s a world-class organist,” Boga said. “It’s so great that Covenant brought him to our area.”

The program, Boga said, will be broken up into thirds.

“They’ll do a third of the concert with just brass, which is particularly impressive in the acoustics of this hall. Then, we’ll do a third of the concert with just choir,” she said. “Then, we’ll do the final third of the concert combined, with the choir accompanied by brass orchestra, and the great Tim Smith on organ. Because there’s nothing like choir, organ and brass. … It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Boga loves the fact that her choir members have the opportunity to collaborate with the high-caliber conservatory players from Mannes, because in the long run it will only make them more committed patrons of the arts.

“You want this kind of interaction between these brilliant young artists and the people who will someday be their consumers and patrons,” Boga said.

For further information on the concert, call 570-941-7624, email music@scranton.edu or visit scranton.edu/music. For more information on the Mannes School of Music, visit www.newschool.edu/mannes.

Back to Top