The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: The University of Wisconsin-Madison hosts its second annual Brass Festival this Friday through Sunday.

By Jacob Stockinger

A fanfare, please!

The brassier, the better!

Last year’s inaugural Brass Fest at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music proved so successful that another will take place later this week.

This year’s Brass Fest – which seems on its way to becoming an annual event — will run from this coming Friday, Oct. 9, through Sunday, Oct. 11.

The organizer and director of the festival is the virtuoso trumpeter John Aley (below), who teaches at the UW-Madison and is also principal trumpet with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. He also gives workshops at schools and festivals around the country, including the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Some festival events are FREE while others -– concerts on Friday and Saturday nights — require admission that benefits the scholarship fund at the UW School of Music.

The repertoire is varied and includes classical music, jazz and folk music.

The lineup of performers is impressive.

It includes the Axiom Brass Quintet (below), which you can hear in a YouTube video at the bottom:

It includes trumpeter Adam Rapa (below top) and singer Elisabeth Vik (below bottom):

And it includes the UW-Madison’s Wisconsin Brass Quintet (below):

But the details are so many and the impressive biographies of performers so long that The Ear thinks it is better not to duplicate them. So instead I am directing readers right to the UW-Madison School of Music’s website and A Tempo blog where you can find out all the details.

Here are three links:

http://www.music.wisc.edu/2015/09/16/brass-fest-ii-to-feature-eclectic-mix-of-jazz-and-folk-vocals-solo-trumpet-and-works-for-brass-quintet/

http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/brass-fest-ii-axiom/

https://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com