New York Trumpet Ensemble Scheduled to Perform at University of Scranton

Oct 14, 2010
The New York Trumpet Ensemble, whose members include Clark Summit native Joseph Boga, will join with several other acclaimed artists for a special performance at The University of Scranton’s Houlihan-Mclean Center on Saturday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m.
The New York Trumpet Ensemble, whose members include Clark Summit native Joseph Boga, will join with several other acclaimed artists for a special performance at The University of Scranton’s Houlihan-Mclean Center on Saturday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m.

        The New York Trumpet Ensemble, directed by the legendary Mark Gould, along with jazz pianist Adam Birnbaum, organist Tim Smith and tubaist David Ostwald, will perform at The University of Scranton’s Houlihan-McLean Center on Saturday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, and the performance is open to the public. The first half of the program will be classical music for trumpets and organ, and the second half will be jazz music for trumpets with piano and tuba.

        Gould, one of the most known and respected trumpeters of his generation, served as principal trumpet of the Metropolitan Opera from 1974 to 2003. Very active as a trumpet soloist and conductor, he has conducted and performed as a soloist with a wide variety of orchestras, wind groups and other ensembles. He has also led an active life as a chamber musician, and has been a frequent guest with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The MET Chamber Ensemble, Empire Brass, Canadian Brass, Summit Brass and many others. Gould has performed as a soloist on many recordings, most recently Café 1930, an album of trumpet and guitar music on Angel/EMI. As principal trumpet of the MET, he performed in more than 40 “Live from Lincoln Center” performances on PBS and numerous audio recordings of operas and symphonic works under the direction of James Levine, among which were a number of Grammy-winning recordings. He has also performed and recorded Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #2 with Philharmonia Virtuosi for Sony Records. One of the most sought after trumpet teachers in the world, he serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School and The Manhattan School of Music. His students play in many of the major orchestras and chamber ensembles internationally.  

        Other members of The New York Trumpet Ensemble include Katie Miller, Caleb Hudson and Joseph Boga.

        Miller holds both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School as a student of Mark Gould and Raymond Mase. A native of California, Miller won the graduate and undergraduate divisions of the National Trumpet Competition, placed as a finalist or semi-finalist in many international competitions, including the Budapest International Trumpet Competition, Prague International Competition, the Jeju International Brass Competition and the Olga Koussevitzky Young Artists Awards Competition. Katie plays with the Axiom Ensemble and the Metropolis Ensemble and has attended the festivals at Verbier, Aspen, Chosen Vale and Interlochen, among others.

        Hudson, who graduated from Juilliard with a bachelor of music degree, is currently pursuing a graduate degree there as a student of Mark Gould and Ray Mase. A native of Lexington, Ky., Hudson won first place at the National Trumpet Competition twice a soloist and twice as a member of The Juilliard Trumpet Ensemble. He was a winner of the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts Award, has made multiple appearances on the Public Radio International program “From the Top”, served as principal trumpet of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, and performed at the Aspen Music Festival with pianist Vladimir Feltsman.

        Boga, an undergraduate student at The Juilliard School enrolled in the Jazz Studies Program, is a trumpet student of Mark Gould, Wynton Marsalis and Chris Jaudes. A native of Northeast Pennsylvania and currently the lead trumpeter with The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, Joseph leads his own quintet and also performs professionally with the Wycliffe Gordon Septet and The Jazz Museum in Harlem All-Stars. Boga has performed at the Parma Jazz Festival in Italy, and has appeared as a student guest performer with the Wynton Marsalis Quartet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He is also a composer/arranger whose works have been premiered and performed in the United States, Italy and Switzerland.

        Birnbaum, a member of the inaugural class of Jazz Studies at The Juilliard School and a student of Kenny Barron, Danilo Perez and Fred Hersch, won the American Jazz Piano Competition to become the American Pianists Association's Cole Porter fellow in Jazz in 2004, received the first ever “special honor” prize at the Martial Solal Competition in Paris, and a Gold Disk award from Swing Journal. In demand as both a sideman and a leader, he toured West Africa as a part of the Rhythm Road program sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center and the U.S. State Department, and has performed throughout the United States and abroad.

        Dr. Smith, director of music and organist at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Scranton, also continues to serve as university organist for St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University, and served as director of music and organist at New York’s famed Riverside Church from 1992 – 2008.  A graduate of Yale University and the Manhattan School of Music, he has received the Theodore Presser Award and the Harry Benjamin Jepson Award from Yale University and the Clair Cocci Award from the Manhattan School of Music. Smith has an extensive discography and has performed in some of the most beautiful and historic houses of worship in this country and abroad.

        Ostwald has led the Gully Low Jazz Band/Louis Armstrong Centennial Band, whose second album — with blues great Big Joe Turner — was nominated for a Grammy Award. Currently in his 10th year of weekly performances at New York City’s famed Birdland jazz club, David has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Dick Hyman, Nicholas Payton, Clark Terry, Benny Waters, Woody Allen, Jon Hendricks, Leon Redbone and the Oxford University Orchestral Society under Sir Jack Westrup, presented jazz education programs at Lincoln Center and the Louis Armstrong House, written extensively about jazz music, and serves on the board of the Louis Armstrong House Museum.


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