Iowa Brass Quintet performs April 11

The Iowa Brass Quintet of the University of Iowa School of Music will return from a Midwest tour to present a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, in the University Capitol Centre Recital Hall.

On the program are Canzona per sonare No. 1 “La Spiritata” by Giovanni Gabrieli, Three Pieces by Ludwig Maurer, Quintet by Malcolm Arnold, Canzona per sonare No. 3 by Gabrieli, Quintetto Lirico by Jan Koetsier, and Overture for Brass by James M. Stephenson.

Horn player Jeffrey Agrell explains, “This concert is a tour through the history of brass repertoire. Both halves of the concert begin with arrangements of pieces by Giovanni Gabrieli, from the transition era between the Renaissance and the Baroque. His music works brilliantly for brass quintet and is a perennial favorite of both performers and audiences.

“Sir Malcolm Arnold is most widely known because of his Academy Award for his film music for The Bridge over the River Kwai. His Quintet for Brass is one of the most important pieces for this instrumentation, and helped establish the brass quintet as a popular form of chamber music when it was composed in 1961 for the New York Brass Quintet. It remains to this day one of the cornerstones of the brass chamber music repertoire.

“The concert closes with the newest work on the program from the youngest composer, finishing the sweep through musical history.”

The School of Music is in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

For more information or special accommodations to attend, contact Jeffrey Agrell at 319-335-1648 or jeffrey-agrell@uiowa.edu.