“I was rather astounded that such a group could play with so much nuance, the cornets making use of mutes. I had never heard of any of the music played, 20th & mostly 21st century, while harmonically inventive, all tonal and written for such instrumentation.
Dorothy Gates’ Hope, written in response to the murder of Palestinians in 2009 was a wild work with chromatic up and down runs and fast moving melodic lines jumping around in all instruments from bottom to top, a chorale like section, pounding tympani & striking cymbal crashes. There were wonderful softer passages using muted cornets. Glorious! This powerfully moving work brought prolonged applause from the audience.
I am completely amazed at how expressive such a group can be and really enjoyed their concert. These are superb musicians and director John Caputo led them in a musical manner.”
–Jim Cartwright