Concert by New Columbian Brass to be first in Somerset center

Note: An edited version of this article ran in the May 12th edition of The Advocate-Messenger.

SOMERSET -- Monday's concert by the New Columbian Brass Band will be the first in Somerset's Center for Rural Development.

The New Columbian Brass Band, a professional group that recreates a turn-of-the-century brass band plays music of the Golden Age of brass band music is directed by George Foreman, managing director of the Norton Center for the Arts and director of the Advocate Brass Band. The concert is being produced by the Lake Cumberland Performing Arts and sponsored by Don Marshall Chrysler and Alumitech.

Elizabeth Spicer, executive director of LCPA and producing director of the Center, said she was ``looking for something that had a specific appeal to Kentucky'' for the first event in the new center.

``I wanted a family-oriented event where everyone could be comfortable,'' Spicer explained. ``And since the New Colombian Brass Band has been receiving national attention, I thought they would be a great group to open our facility.''

In addition to the Monday evening concert, the New Columbian Brass Band is working with three high school bands through workshops.

``The kids are coming in that afternoon around one for an open rehearsal,'' Foreman explained. ``We have an hour set aside where kids will have clinics. The band members will work with the students and the high school kids are going to play two pieces on the concert with the band.''

Spicer said she was pleased the professionals would work with the younger musicians. ``We like to do programs that tie in with education,'' she noted.

The New Columbian Brass Band, co-founded by Foreman and band solo cornetist Vince DiMartino, played seven concerts around the country last year, including Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, where the group made its debut in May, 1994. The band also played at the brass band festival in Battle Creek, Mich. The music of the band features not only the familiar marches of John Philip Sousa but also largely forgotten, once-popular music for band such as descriptive overtures, ragtime pieces, and virtuoso solos for cornet, euphonium and piccolo.

``We felt like there would be interest in this kind of music beyond Danville,'' Foreman said of the band's creation.

The band, currently being managed by Columbia Artists Management Inc., is composed of 23 professional members -- one piccolo, five clarinets, six cornets, three alto horns, one euphonium, three trombones, two tubas and two percussion -- from Los Angeles to Redding, Penn., and around the country. The band's soloists are DiMartino; his wife Lydia, who plays the piccolo; and Earle Louder on euphonium.

It's name -- New Columbian Brass Band -- has an interesting origination.

``It's a purely made-up name,'' Foreman said. ``We began thinking about it in 1992 and decided we wanted a good, American name.

``At this time in the 19th century, `Columbia' was used a lot more than it is now ... We just thought it up and it sounded old-fashioned.''

The group has recorded one compact disc, ``Music from America's Golden Age,'' and is currently working on another, that Foreman said he hoped to complete in Somerset.

The first compact disc was recorded in Washington, D.C., and Foreman called it a ``potpourri of marches, solos and overtures.'' It includes pieces such as ``Death of Custer,'' which essentially tells the story of the battle at Little Big Horn -- the gathering of forces, the battle, Custer's funeral -- through music.

The second CD is composed entirely of ``descriptive overtures,'' such as ``Death of Custer.'' One is titled ``The Hunting of the Snark,'' written by T.H. Rollinson and is based on an 1880s poem by Lewis Carroll.

Another descriptive overture is the ``Ben Hur Chariot Race'' by Sousa, in which the composer took a scene from the race and wrote music that reflected his impression of the race. This composition has never been published, although Sousa did play it with a band.

The third CD, Foreman said, stems from a lecture recital he attended about six years ago. The lecture was on a piece titled ``Carnival of Venice,'' possibly the most famous cornet solo ever. ``Every cornet virtuoso in the 19th and early 20th century wrote his own variation of this piece,'' Foreman said.

As a result, about 14 or 15 variations of ``Carnival of Venice,'' exist, and the third CD will be composed entirely of some variations, ranging from the 1860s to the 1920s, of that music.

The concert was held in the center's convention hall, which seats about 2,000. It was the first musical event in that space. The center officially opened June 15.

The concert was held at 7:30 p.m. May 13 at the Center for Rural Development, 2292 U.S. 27 in Pulaski County, south of Lincoln County.