Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble to perform free concert Nov. 18 in Arlington Heights
The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the World War I Armistice, the truce that ended hostilities, with a concert titled Heroic Journeys, free and open to the public, at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 18 , at First Presbyterian Church of Arlington Heights, 302 N. Dunton Ave., Arlington Heights, Ill. For information call (847) 255-5900 or visit www.firstpresah.org or gargoylebrass.com.
Unique in the Chicago area, the professional ensemble of brass quintet and pipe organ will showcase recent works and arrangements it commissioned for its unusual array of instruments, including percussion.
The concert will open with French composer Charles Marie-Widor's "Salvum fac populum tuum" ("Lord, save thy people"), Op. 84, written during World War I. Johannes Brahms's "Blessed are they that mourn," from "A German Requiem," will be heard in an arrangement by Craig Garner.
In a tribute to heroes of the space program, the Gargoyle ensemble will present Imaginary Journeys, written for it by composer Mark Lathan, a native of Arlington Heights currently living Bartlett, Ill. It takes listeners on a rocket-powered interstellar adventure, inspired by recent astronomical discoveries. "For this piece," Lathan says, "I wanted to bring in some drama, somewhat in the manner of a film score." Lathan earned a doctorate in music from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he received the Henry Mancini Award in Film Composition and studied film scoring with Jerry Goldsmith.
The ensemble will play Garner's brass and organ arrangement of Igor Stravinsky's ever-popular Suite from "The Firebird," a ballet based on a Russian legend about a heroic prince who rescues a princess from an evil sorcerer . "The audience will hear an all-time favorite orchestral work like they've never heard it before," says Rodney Holmes, founder and artistic director of the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble.
Other imaginative works include David Marlatt's "Earthscape," from the Gargoyles' critically acclaimed debut album "Flourishes, Tales, and Symphonies," as well as pipe-organ versions of "Clair de lune" ("Moonlight") by Claude Debussy and Louis Vierne.
Concertgoers will hear "Short Fuse" for brass, organ, and percussion by Chris Reyman, a jazz performance specialist teaching at the University of Texas at El Paso. Holmes says, "This piece shows off a very different face of what a pipe organ and brass can do."
For Baroque-music lovers, the program offers Garner's two-part instrumental suite from 17th-century English composer Henry Purcell's "Come Ye Sons of Art," a tribute to Queen Mary on her birthday in 1694.
Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble
"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 debut CD. "[They] are perfect companions for the music lover in need of calming nourishment."
Ensemble members are Lev Garbar and Andrew Hunter, trumpets; Kathryn Swope, horn; Ian Fitzwater, trombone; Jason Lyons, tuba; Logan Fox, percussion; and T. Jared Stellmacher, organ.
Conductor is Stephen Squires, resident conductor of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Millar Brass Ensemble, and professor of conducting in the Music Conservatory of Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts.
The Gargoyle ensemble 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 Rodney Holmes, it has evolved over the decades into an independent organization of classically trained professional musicians that focuses on commissioning and performing groundbreaking new works and arrangements for brass and pipe organ. More information at gargoylebrass.com.