WELCOME TO BRASS QUINTET FORUM
Welcome to Brass Quintet Forum.com, a website designed to foster brass chamber music. What you will find here is content focused mostly on the repertoire for brass quintet, especially music composed for chamber settings, and specifically works performed by or with the Annapolis Brass Quintet, which was founded in 1971 as America's first full-time performing brass ensemble.
Our quintet's founding was inspired by the New York Brass Quintet (founded in 1954), and the American Brass Quintet, (founded in 1960). These two extraordinary ensembles played critical roles in establishing the brass quintet as a respected chamber music medium. While New York collectively retired in 1984, the American Brass Quintet in 2021 marks its 61st Anniversary as the 'high priests of brass'.
The Annapolis Brass Quintet performed its final concert on April 25, 1993. Over its twenty-two years the ABQ performed thousands of concerts on four continents and in all fifty state, recorded sixteen commercial albums, unearthed and performed a large body of early brass music, and premiered some seventy-five new works for brass quintet. The ABQ's final concert included the world premiere of a work commissioned especially for the occasion -- an emphatic statement that our farewell performance was not an end, but rather just part of a collective continuum in the advancement of brass chamber music.
It then took us 15 years to find a perfect home where the ABQ's music library would be easily accessible to benefit present and future generations of brass players and scholars. [ Read More - ABQ Library @ Oberlin Conservatory of Music ]
In the past three years we have come upon an ever-growing number of recordings of our ensemble's live concert and broadcast performances from as far back as 1973. Since March 12, 2020 we have been posting web pages with recordings of music for brass quintet alone, collaborative chamber works, and entire concert performances.
An extraordinary number of additional reel-to-reel, cassette tapes, and broadcast recordings of historic ABQ performances are being digitalized and will be shared with you through June 2021 via this website. Subsequently, all of these recordings will become an archival performance component to the Oberlin Conservatory Music Library's Annapolis Brass Quintet Collection.
Posting of ABQ Digital Recordings will continue to be posted on this site through June 2021. To access any or all past, present posted recording web pages go to the ABQ Audio Page #2, and/or ABQ Audio Page #1.
Our quintet's founding was inspired by the New York Brass Quintet (founded in 1954), and the American Brass Quintet, (founded in 1960). These two extraordinary ensembles played critical roles in establishing the brass quintet as a respected chamber music medium. While New York collectively retired in 1984, the American Brass Quintet in 2021 marks its 61st Anniversary as the 'high priests of brass'.
The Annapolis Brass Quintet performed its final concert on April 25, 1993. Over its twenty-two years the ABQ performed thousands of concerts on four continents and in all fifty state, recorded sixteen commercial albums, unearthed and performed a large body of early brass music, and premiered some seventy-five new works for brass quintet. The ABQ's final concert included the world premiere of a work commissioned especially for the occasion -- an emphatic statement that our farewell performance was not an end, but rather just part of a collective continuum in the advancement of brass chamber music.
It then took us 15 years to find a perfect home where the ABQ's music library would be easily accessible to benefit present and future generations of brass players and scholars. [ Read More - ABQ Library @ Oberlin Conservatory of Music ]
In the past three years we have come upon an ever-growing number of recordings of our ensemble's live concert and broadcast performances from as far back as 1973. Since March 12, 2020 we have been posting web pages with recordings of music for brass quintet alone, collaborative chamber works, and entire concert performances.
An extraordinary number of additional reel-to-reel, cassette tapes, and broadcast recordings of historic ABQ performances are being digitalized and will be shared with you through June 2021 via this website. Subsequently, all of these recordings will become an archival performance component to the Oberlin Conservatory Music Library's Annapolis Brass Quintet Collection.
Posting of ABQ Digital Recordings will continue to be posted on this site through June 2021. To access any or all past, present posted recording web pages go to the ABQ Audio Page #2, and/or ABQ Audio Page #1.
SPECIAL POST: APRIL 1, 2021
MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO DOUGLAS ALLANBROOK
CENTENNIAL OF HIS BIRTH: APRIL 1, 1921
TWO TENNYSON SETTINGS
1985 PREMIERE:
To Listen Tap Here
Thursday 25 March Recording Post
George Heussenstamm: Canonic Fanfare
Ray Sprenkle: Quaker Bottom
The ABQ & Bavarian Radio Orchestra
To listen Tap HERE
Wednesday 24 March Recording Post
Yngve Slettholm: Elegy for brass quintet
An expressive and contemplative piece.
To listen Tap HERE
Ned Rorem: Diversions for brass quintet
A playful array of duos, trios and quartets
and quintets in 14 movements.
To listen tap HERE
MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO DOUGLAS ALLANBROOK
CENTENNIAL OF HIS BIRTH: APRIL 1, 1921
TWO TENNYSON SETTINGS
1985 PREMIERE:
To Listen Tap Here
Thursday 25 March Recording Post
George Heussenstamm: Canonic Fanfare
Ray Sprenkle: Quaker Bottom
The ABQ & Bavarian Radio Orchestra
To listen Tap HERE
Wednesday 24 March Recording Post
Yngve Slettholm: Elegy for brass quintet
An expressive and contemplative piece.
To listen Tap HERE
Ned Rorem: Diversions for brass quintet
A playful array of duos, trios and quartets
and quintets in 14 movements.
To listen tap HERE
Thank you for your interest in brass chamber music.
Former members of the Annapolis Brass Quintet (1971 - 1993)
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
Library Special Collections
Annapolis Brass Quintet Music Library
Available for Performance & Research
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Former members of the Annapolis Brass Quintet (1971 - 1993)
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
Library Special Collections
Annapolis Brass Quintet Music Library
Available for Performance & Research
READ ALL ABOUT IT
For direct access to the Annapolis Brass Quintet Special Collection at Oberlin Conservatory
Tap Here
FOSTERING BRASS CHAMBER MUSIC
Tap Here
FOSTERING BRASS CHAMBER MUSIC
Robert Posten Memorial Tribute Page
Tap Here
ROBERT "RIP" POSTEN
Bass Trombonist & Tubist
January 24, 1945 - June 10, 2020
Founding Member of the Annapolis Brass Quintet
Tap Here
ROBERT "RIP" POSTEN
Bass Trombonist & Tubist
January 24, 1945 - June 10, 2020
Founding Member of the Annapolis Brass Quintet