Arts & Culture

SU Brass Ensemble rings in the holiday season

Monday, November 19, 2012, By Rob Enslin

The Syracuse University Brass Ensemble (SUBE), housed in The College of Arts and Sciences and conducted by James T. Spencer, continues its 2012-13 season with three holiday concerts.

Performances are Sunday, Nov. 25, at 7 p.m. at Saints Peter and John Episcopal Church (169 Genesee St., Auburn); Sunday, Dec. 2, at 7:30 p.m. in SU’s Hendricks Chapel, with the Hendricks Chapel Choir (directed by John Warren), the Hendricks Chapel Handbell Ringers (directed by Emily Cirillo) and University organist Kola Owolabi; and Sunday, Dec. 16, at 3 p.m. at the United Church of Fayetteville (310 E. Genesee St., Fayetteville), with the church’s handbell choir (led by Hugh Jones).

All concerts are free and open to the public. People attending the Dec. 16 performance are invited to bring nonperishable food items, benefiting the Fayetteville-Manlius Community Outreach. Nonperishable items will also be collected at the Dec. 2 concert.

For more information, call 315-786-2458, or visit SUBE on Facebook.

“These concerts are like musical postcards,” says Spencer. “In addition to presenting music from all over the world, we are augmenting our performances with various brass soloists, singers, organists and handbell players. There’s something here for everyone.”

Spencer also serves as an SU Meredith Professor and as the associate dean for science, mathematics and research in the college.

Each program draws on four centuries of songs and carols, including “Let It Snow,” “White Christma,s” “Winter Wonderland,” “O Holy Night,” “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” featuring WCNY-FM’s Bruce Paulsen. Non-holiday fare includes music from Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” Rossini’s “Semiramide,” Saint-Saëns’ “Samson and Delilah,” “The Muppet Show” and “Crimson Tide.”

Additional soloists are trumpeters Jeff Stockham and Craig Elwood and euphoniumist Brenda Conley.

The Dec. 2 concert, known as “Holidays at Hendricks,” will broadcast on WCNY-TV and radio:

Tuesday, Dec. 18, at 9:30 p.m. (channels 24.1 WCNY-DT and 24.4 WCNYHD)
Sunday, Dec. 23, at 4 p.m. (channel 24.4 WCNYHD)
Sunday, Dec. 23, at 6:30 p.m. (channels 24.1 WCNY-DT and 24.4 WCNYHD)
Monday, Dec. 24, at 6 p.m. (Syracuse 91.3 FM)
Tuesday, Dec. 25, at 8 a.m.  (Syracuse 91.3 FM)
Tuesday, Dec. 25, at 10 p.m. (channels 24.1 WCNY-DT and 24.4 WCNYHD)

Broadcast dates and times for Watertown and Binghamton are TBA. The performance may also be streamed on wcny.org.

DVDs of the award-winning “Holidays at Hendricks” broadcasts are available at the SU Bookstore.

SUBE features professional-level musicians from throughout the region, many of whom are doctors, teachers and retirees. In addition to performing at official SU functions, SUBE presents more than a dozen public concerts a year. Distinguished composers from whom SUBE has commissioned music include Robert Ward, Arthur Frackenpohl and Joseph Downing.