The nation’s finest brass players join forces for Gabrieli,
a new recording by OBERLIN MUSIC and San Francisco
Conservatory Music on sale October 9 on Hybrid SACD
The National Brass Ensemble pays homage to the Grammy Awardwinning album The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli, with a new record
showcasing principal brass and percussion musicians from ten of the
nation’s top orchestras across the country. Gabrieli also includes the
world premiere of John Williams’ “Music for Brass,” a tribute to the
great tradition of versatility and artistic prominence of the American
brass playing.
The 1968 Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli set the bar for American brass-playing excellence and featured
that generation’s premier brass musicians from the orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland.
“Every player of our generation and since has a story about the first time we listened to it, and how we
were awestruck by what we heard,” says Michael Sachs, Principal Trumpet for The Cleveland
Orchestra.
The National Brass Ensemble was born more than four decades later when Sachs and David H. Stull
(then Dean of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music) sat down in the spring of 2011 to discuss a similar
project, as both an homage to that seminal recording and as a modern version of the concept.
Comprising 26 of the finest brass and percussion players from seven major orchestras across the
country, the members of the National Brass Ensemble hold principal positions in the Boston Symphony,
Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York
Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony, Opera and Ballet orchestras.
The National Brass Ensemble’s debut on June 12, 2014 took on the air of an historic event. More than
one thousand enthusiasts from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond descended on Sonoma State
University’s Green Music Center to hear these legendary musicians perform as one group. The
ensemble’s subsequent recording Gabrieli was made over the course of one week at the renowned
Skywalker Sound studios and recorded in Hybrid SACD.
In striving to create something truly unique, new arrangements of Giovanni Gabrieli’s landmark
collection, Sacrae Symphoniae (1597) were created by Tim Higgins, Principal Trombone of San
Francisco Symphony. Higgins worked from original source material to create fresh versions for modern
brass instruments. Dr. Otto Biba, Director of the Archives at the Wiener Musikverein, guided the
production team to rare, out-of-print scores in original notation, and without modern instrumentation.
Those scores formed the basis of the arrangements that appear on this recording.
“No composer seems to have rivaled the appeal of Giovanni Gabrieli, a fixture in the repertory of
modern brass ensembles, and no composer is more iconic of Venice’s fabled renaissance splendor than
Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557-1612), organist of the Basilica of St. Mark and of the Scuola Grande di
San Rocco,” says Steven Plank, Andrew E. Meldrum Professor of Musicology at the Oberlin
Conservatory of Music. “His works are frequently polychoral, extending the cori spezzati practice of
antiphonal music established earlier in the century at St. Mark’s by the Flemish maestro di cappella,
Adrian Willaert. The use of instruments figures prominently in Gabrieli’s works as well, either in
independent instrumental forms like the canzona and the sonata, or in combination with voices, where
the presence of cornetts and trombones (among others) added a distinctive degree of color and variety
to the sound of motets heard in the basilica.”
One of the most popular and successful American orchestral composers of the modern age, John
Williams is the winner of five Academy Awards, 17 Grammys, three Golden Globes, two Emmys and
five BAFTA Awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Best known for his film scores
and ceremonial music, Williams is also a noted composer of concert works and a renowned conductor.
Music for Brass was written expressly for this occasion.
OBERLIN MUSIC and SFCM 50 Oak Music release Gabrieli on October 9, 2015.
About OBERLIN MUSIC
OBERLIN MUSIC is the official record label of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. It celebrates the
artistic vision and superlative talent of Oberlin’s faculty, students, and alumni—on campus and on tour.
Essential to this mission is Clonick Hall, a superior recording facility dedicated to capturing studio
sessions in the heart of the conservatory. Oberlin Music titles are available on CD and digital music
channels worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.oberlin.edu/oberlinmusic.
About SFCM 50 Oak Music
50 Oak Music is the record label of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. It was founded to
showcase the artistry of its faculty, students and alumni as well as to produce other worthy projects
that advance the art form of music. In partnership with Oberlin Music, National Brass Ensemble’s
Gabrieli is its debut release. For more information, visit http://www.sfcm.edu.
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