Harmonia Concert Series feature trumpet virtuoso Christopher O’Hara

Harmonia Concert Series welcomes internationally renowned trumpet soloist and chamber musician Christopher O’Hara on Sunday, March 22.

The educator and Bensenville native will be performing at 3 p.m. at Faith Community United Church of Christ, 192 S. Center St. in Bensenville. There will be a free-will offering. All are welcome. A reception will follow the concert.

This program will showcase selections from his current album, “Fantasie,” including “Ballad,” a piece written for him by his Fenton High School bandmate, R. Christopher Teichler.

This special recital also will include works by Herbert L. Clarke, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Jennifer Higdon, and others. O’Hara will be accompanied at the piano by Michael Finlay, Faith Community’s Director of Music.

O’Hara’s playing is described as “virtuosic and impressive in every way” (Chicago Music Examiner), “a treat beyond measure” {Arlington Advocate), and the International Trumpet Guild hails him as “a true master of (the) instrument.”

During his time at Fenton High School, he was mentored by Fred Lewis, an icon in the Bensenville/Wood Dale communities, and formed his first brass quintet which played for many local events. He also received the WGN Extra Effort Award and appeared on the station during his high school years.

While at the Boston Conservatory, he founded a brass quintet which became the Synergy Brass and toured all over the U.S. and the world. He is the founder of the award-winning Alliance Brass, and a performing and recording member of the Illumine Trio, an ensemble of soprano, trumpet and harp. His schedule has taken him to nearly 4,000 performances at notable venues across 48 states and 12 countries. He has performed with The Boston Pops, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Natalie Cole. He has appeared as a regular guest on NPR’s “The Front Row,” and graced the stages of the Ravinia Music Festival, the Tanglewood Music Festival and concert halls across North America, Europe, and Asia. He has conducted countless master classes and clinics at public schools and the world’s finest colleges and universities, including many in this area.

O’Hara currently serves as adjunct trumpet professor and Head of Brass at Elmhurst University and Concordia University Chicago, as well as VanderCook College of Music. While earning his Doctor of Music Arts at the University of Illinois, he studied under the former member of the Canadian Brass Ronald Romm.