Village Brass Quintet
This group hails from the Columbus, Ohio, area and includes two trumpets, a French horn, a trombone and a tuba.
Paul Bierley, who leads the group that formed 12 years ago, has never missed a Great American Brass Band Festival. One of the pulls has been that he's a member of the Brass Band of Columbus, which has performed at the festival.
``That's not my claim to fame. I played with the Columbus Symphony and Detroit Concert Band.''
Bierley, who is working on a book about band leader John Philip Sousa, also has been to Danville to speak at Friday's history conference on ragtime. He plans to speak to a group attending an Elderhostel planned for this year.
``I'll be making a couple of presentations at the Elderhostel.''
The group has a wide range of music.
``We do anything,'' Bierley says.
Before Friday's history conference, the group will play ragtime tunes in keeping with the conference theme. On Saturday, it plays at the Centre Shoppes bookstore.
``For Saturday, we'll keep it anywhere from the Baroque period to the golden age of bands. We'll do a Stephen Foster medley and Sousa collection and stick in a march or two and one or two ragtime places.''
Bierley observes that the group wears two hats. As the Ohio Village Brass they perform at the Ohio Historical Society's Ohio Village, which is a restored Civil War village. They dress in period costumes.
``We look funnier than all get out. The fellows have to wear stove pipe hats. The women have to wear bonnets and long dresses.''
