Brass Choir
Brass Choir General Information
Led by founder and director Josef Hanson, the University of Rochester Brass Choir (MUR 170) is a 35-45 member ensemble dedicated to performing quality brass music at a high level while fostering a spirit of community among brass players on the River Campus. The current membership of the Brass Choir includes representatives from nearly all of the University's divisions, including the Hajim School of Engineering, Institute of Optics, Ph.D. program in Math, Eastman School of Music, and School of Medicine and Dentistry. The group is open to experienced trumpet, horn, trombone, euphonium, and tuba players who played throughout high school, as well as faculty/staff/alumni/community players. Auditions may be necessary to determine the competency of new members before acceptance into the group can be guaranteed. Repertoire includes fanfares, Renaissance pieces, contemporary literature written specifically for brass, and arrangements of light classics and popular music. Members are invited and encouraged to arrange or compose for the group. Recent selections performed by the Brass Choir include Samuel Barber's Mutations from Bach, Eric Ewazen's Western Fanfare, and Aerosmith's Big Ten Inch Record. In 2010, the UR Brass Octet was formed to provide more flexibility for outreach performances at schools and churches, and to develop a more intimate chamber music-type experience for select participants. In its short existence, the Brass Octet has already been featured in concert at Admissions Open Campus events, at Union Presbyterian Church in Scottsville, NY, and in their own recital at St. Luke and St. Simon Cyrene Church in downtown Rochester to benefit the church's "Right On" summer youth camp program. In January of 2011, the full Brass Choir embarked on its first-ever concert tour to Washington, D.C., performing at the Kennedy Center, National Presbyterian Church, and National Basilica for such notables as former Senator Elizabeth Dole and former NASA astronaut John Glenn.
Rehearsals take place on Friday afternoons from 2:30-4:30pm in Strong Auditorium. Contact director Josef Hanson for more information or to join the group.
Brass Choir Members
Josef Hanson
Director, UR Brass Choir
Manager of Music Performance Programs
Advisor, BA/MA programs in Music Education and Ethnomusicology
Courses: MUR 101, MUR 170
206 Todd Union
josef.hanson@rochester. edu
Phone: (585) 273-5157
Fax: (585) 273-5337
M.A., Eastman School of Music
www.josefhanson.com
A member of the College Music Department community since 2002, Josef M. Hanson is the Manager of Music Performance Programs on the River Campus of the University of Rochester, handling the coordination of all performance-related activity for the College's music ensembles and lessons program. In addition, Hanson teaches in the music theory sequence (MUR 101- Elements of Music), directs the University's Brass Choir (MUR 170), and serves as the College's advisor for the combined BA/MA programs in music education and ethnomusicology. Hanson also teaches a multitude of music courses at The Highlands of Pittsford and Ferris Hills at West Lake retirement communities, and is also a faculty member at the Hochstein School of Music and Dance extension program in Canandaigua, NY. A native of Maryland, Hanson graduated summa cum laude from Towson University in Baltimore with a Bachelor's degree in music education and also received a Master's degree in music education from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. His M.A. thesis discusses the development of a contextual Internet-based teaching application for beginning instrumental music instruction. A born and bred percussionist, Hanson switched to trombone in high school and went on to concentrate in trombone performance and music history as an undergraduate music education major. He studied trombone with Wayne Wells of the Annapolis Brass Quintet and MU1 David Perkel, lead trombone with the U.S. Navy Commodores jazz ensemble. At the Eastman School, Hanson studied under the guidance of Richard Grunow and Christopher Azzara. A former music educator in the Frederick County (MD) Public Schools, Hanson has taught instrumental, choral, and general music courses in a wide variety of settings, with students aged kindergarten through adult. He is also a former executive director and conductor of the Frederick Symphonic Band, a regional honor band in suburban Maryland. More recently, Hanson has been invited to share his love of music through speaking engagements sponsored by the Friends of Wood Library in Canandaigua, Finger Lakes Forum in Geneva, and Chatterbox Club in Rochester. An active musician, he has performed on trombone in Rochester this year with Sinfonia CorDancia and the Finger Lakes Choral Festival. During the summer of 2010, Hanson served as the orchestra director for Everyone's Theatre Company's production of The Wiz, and at the conclusion of the show's run, was recognized by the Theatre Association of New York State (TANYS) with the Excellence in Orchestra Directing merit award. He currently resides in Fairport, NY with his wife Katy and dog Cammie.
Brass Choir Audio Samples
Dukas Fanfare from 'La Peri' (excerpt)
Nelhybel Ancient Hungarian Dances (excerpt)
Balmages Symphony no. 1 for Brass (excerpt)
Ewazen Symphony in Brass (excerpt)
Brass Choir Photos
