The brass shone at the ninth annual Benefit Concert hosted by the Vero Friends of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, which featured the ACO Brass Quintet.
“It’s so great to see you,” said David Amado, ACO music director, to guests at the recent Mingle Jingle fundraiser, held at the Riverhouse. “It’s kind of amazing and weird to be out and about and starting things up again. I don’t ever want to be part of unprecedented times again. It’s been so disruptive in every possible way.”
He noted that in addition to the devastating effects COVID has had on many people, it also took away what we all normally took for granted, including the ability to plan ahead.
“All of that was just pulled out from under us and that’s so fundamentally disorienting,” said Amado. “I think music is a wonderful way to provide a kind of stability for us, and that’s been gone. And the fact that it’s coming back is, I think, absolutely wonderful.”
He said the pandemic highlighted that the audience is as important to the concert experience as what happens on stage. While they did play a full season last year, it was with a reduced orchestra, no audience and was broadcast via the Internet.
“They weren’t concerts. I mean, we played the music, but it wasn’t a concert without you there. A concert is a congregational activity,” he explained.
“It’s a dialogue between the composer, musicians and the audience being present together, sharing physical space. Because when we share that physical space, we also share that emotional space. And that kind of connection can’t happen if there’s nobody in the audience.
Not having the audience there made it clear to me how important your presence is to a successful performance. So, thank you for being here.”
Of the ACO Brass Quintet, Amado said, “Your brass players are always in the back of the orchestra, but they always want to be in the front. So here they are, without the orchestra, moved up to the front.”
He added that “there’s something just inherently festive about brass music,” because “there’s something inherently festive about brass players.”
The stirring performance by the quintet – James Hacker, trumpet; Jeffrey Kaye, trumpet; Stan Spinola, horn; Timothy Conner, trombone; and Dan Satterwhite, bass trombone/tuba – began appropriately with a flourish, playing “Fanfare” from the ballet “La Peri” by Paul Dukas.
“We were very excited about being here tonight to make music together. It’s been a rough time but we’re glad to be back and cross our fingers that it will stay that way,” said Hacker.
He informed that they would be playing a variety of music spanning some 500 years, beginning with a piece from the Renaissance period and an instantly recognizable work from the Baroque period, John Joseph Mouret’s “Rondeau,” chosen by PBS to be the Masterpiece Theatre theme.
More modern pieces included Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Maria,” from “West Side Story,” and they closed out the concert with medleys of Christmas Carols and Festive Sounds of Hanukkah.
For information about the upcoming ACO season, visit atlanticclassicalorchestra.com.
Photos by Kaila Jones
