Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble to play new works at free concerts in Elgin and Wheaton
The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble will play a new arrangement of Benjamin Britten's evocative "Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia" from his dramatic opera "Peter Grimes" at concerts at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 4, at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 256 Chicago St. in Elgin; and 4 p.m. Sunday, March 6, at St. Michael Catholic Church, 310 S. Wheaton Ave., Wheaton.
Admission to the Elgin and Wheaton concerts is free to the general public. Information is available at gargoylebrass.com.
The arrangement, commissioned by the professional chamber ensemble and written by Craig Garner, is based on Britten's own, widely performed orchestral version of the same music, which mirrors the plot and setting of a tragic story that unfolds in an English seacoast village.
The Gargoyle's nautical-themed concert program, titled "Seascapes: Music from Britten's 'Peter Grimes,'" will include another newly commissioned arrangement: Garner's "Suite from Water Music," based on G.F. Handel's popular baroque masterpiece.
"Listeners will experience a deluge of water-themed delights," says Rodney Holmes, artistic director of Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble.
In addition, the program, conducted by Stephen Squires, will offer Claude Debussy's French impressionist "La cathédrale engloutie" ("The Sunken Cathedral"), written for and performed on solo piano; and the "Russian Sailor's Dance" from Reinhold Glière's ballet "The Red Poppy."
Concertgoers will also hear Britten's "Fanfare for St. Edmondsbury," Vaughn Williams' "Two Preludes for Organ" ("Bryn Calfaria" and "Rhosymedre"), and Michael Burkhardt's organ and brass arrangement of the hymn "You Call Us, Lord, to Be," based on a Welsh folk tune.
Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble
Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble musicians performing in the concerts are trumpet players Lev Garbar of Naperville and Andrew Hunter of Arlington Heights; horn player Renée Vogen of Chicago; trombonist Ian Fitzwater of North Aurora; tuba player Phil Bessette of Crown Point, Ind.; pianist Mark Sudeith of Chicago; organist Heike Burghart Rice of Riverside; and percussionist Joe Beribak of Elgin.
"The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble plays with warmth, elegance, and panache," said U.S. music magazine Fanfare in a review of the ensemble's newly released debut CD "Flourishes, Tales and Symphonies" on the MSR Classics label. "(They) are perfect companions for the music lover in need of calming nourishment."
The group takes its whimsical name from the stone figures atop Gothic buildings at the University of the Chicago, where the now-professional ensemble got its start in 1992 as a brass quintet of faculty and students. Under its founder and artistic director Holmes, it has evolved over the decades into an independent organization of classically trained musicians that focuses on commissioning and performing groundbreaking new works and arrangements for brass and pipe organ. Visit gargoylebrass.com.