Ithaca Brass perform and instruct

     Ithaca Brass entertained and instructed students as part of a partnership between the district and Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts to enhance the district’s fine arts program.
      The group, composed of the Ithaca College brass faculty, performed a variety of music including classical pieces, spirituals, jazz, and Theme From the Pink Panther in two performances on separate days, the first for students in grades 9-12, the second for students in grades 4-8. During each performance, individual players explained various aspects of their instruments. Afterwards, they conducted a workshop for players of those instruments. The group consists of Frank Campos and Kim Dunnick, trumpet; Harold Reynolds, trombone; Alex Shuhan, French horn; and David Unland, tuba. A graduate student substituted for Reynolds at the second performance.
       Ithaca Brass was established in 1966 as the resident brass quintet of the Ithaca College School of Music, making the quintet one of the very first groups of its kind. Since then the Ithaca Brass has performed programs throughout the United States at regional, state, and national conferences of educators and professional music organizations. Through the years they have performed hundreds of concerts for schools from elementary to high school as well as community and college concert series throughout the Northeast.
       Other musical events as part of Fort Plain’s partnership with MVCA will include a program for young students of Aesop’s Fables set to music, and a Caribbean steel drum workshop for students in grades 4-6. After attending the workshop, students will show what they have learned in a concert performance.