I was given this flowchart by a colleague at my university. It does a pretty good job of covering all the excuses we and our students find for not practicing our instruments. Enjoy.
Memorial Day Rehearsal
June 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Happy Memorial Day!
The KnoX Brass Worx Co. would like to take a moment and thank all military, police, and firefighters who have served or are serving our country.
Thank You!
Today started our “grand push” toward our July performance at the New York Summer Music Festival. Our “grand push” is, lets just say, ambitious. But don’t worry we will be recording some random events from these rehearsals as the mood strikes us. With that in mind, here is a run through of a Duke Ellington tune called “In a Sentimental Mood“.
We’re not a 100% sure who the arranger is as these parts appear hand written and only one mentions the arranger as Jack Gale. So, for all practical purposes this arrangement is by Jack Gale.
We Hope you enjoy!
It is possible we will be giving a pre-trip performance of our July show. I will update the site as soon as we find a suitable location.
Uno Mas?
May 5, 2010 By 5 Comments
Hello everyone! First, let me say thanks to everyone who braved the storms and made it out to the Rossini Festival on the 24th. Despite the torrential downpour, everything seemed to go well and we had a pretty good time. The crowd that was trapped there under the tent… I mean, the audience attending our performance, seemed to enjoy it as well… And they had the bonus of getting to stay dry. Because of the weather forecast I didn’t take a camera to video the show. So you will just have to trust me when I say “we were marvelous”. Really. We were. 
Onward we go! Next on the agenda is the Hooding ceremony for the University of Tennessee Law School. Now, unless you or a friend or family member is graduating from the Law School, most of you wont be able to attend this one. Although, they probably wouldn’t throw you out if you wanted to crash the event to hear us. In fact, I recommend it!!! Crash away, then leave before the boring stuff gets started. We are planning a lovely program of fast, raucous, rip-roaring tunes. At any rate, here is a sample… This one was recorded last so forgive the decrease in tempo… I think we were getting a little bleary eyed.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here… something a little crazy. I’m gonna try and get some of the other peoples in the group to post from time to time… Any thoughts? Too crazy?
Hello Young Lovers arr. Warren Clark.
April 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Hello all! We are rabidly, preparing for some upcoming gigs. The Rossini Festival on the 24th, The UT Law School Hooding on May 14th and our Concert for the New York Summer Music Festival on July 20th. Rabidly may sound like an odd adjective to use but, it seemed apt to me as I was typing that sentence. I mean we’re all looking forward to playing for everyone… foaming at the mouth (so to speak). Now that I think about it, rabidly doesn’t sound like such a good description. How about intensely or eagerly?.
Anyway… Amidst all our rehearsing (between all the bad puns from Joel) we decided to break things up a bit and read another new piece. This one came to us again from Warren Clark. If you’ll remember Warren stopped by one of our rehearsal a while back and gave us a couple of new charts. This is an arrangement of “Hello Young Lovers” from the Musical “The King and I” … (Which as far as musicals go, isn’t all that bad …) I think we may add this tune to our Program for the Rossini Festival.
What do you think?
March 9 Reading Rehearsal
March 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Hello all!
Last night’s rehearsal was full of reading new Music. We read a couple of movements of “Quintet in Old Style“ by local composer W.M. Harrell. This is a really good piece. Hard but, good. The work was originally written in 2003 and premiered by the Brasswind Quintet (the Faculty Brass Quintet of the University of Tennessee) but, Harrell decided to “re-work” the Quintet and I was able to talk him out of some parts. It is a four movement piece but we currently only have the first two as he is not finished “re-working” the last two yet. If all goes well you all will be hearing it soon, for sure.
Our second reading of the night was of a piece by composer Jocelyn Hagen. This is a new work titled “a tree will have its branches” and so far it is great! It’s brand new… as in, “not finished” and never been performed publicly. But, we hope to change the performance part soon. We’ll update you all more on it as it’s rehearsals progress.
The last new piece we read was , again, not published yet and not performed. This piece is “Pompous Circumstances” by Mark Andrew Pope . This one we recorded so that Mark could hear it and see how it worked with the Quintet. If you like the tune and want it for your group, just check out Mark Pope’s website, MarkAndrewPope.com. There you can find all his contact information as well as information on other orginal compositions and arrangements. Here’s the video, hope you enjoy!!
Rehearsal: Reading “Quintet” by Michael Kamen
February 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Tonight we decided to read and rehearse a piece Sarah brought in. It’s “Quintet” by Michael Kamen… It’s a great tune! I think this one will make it on our next performance!