By Kathy Wadenpfuhl
Special to The PREVIEW
Baylor Brass will once again headline the August concerts for Mountain Light Music Festival. But, in addition to this fabulous brass quintet, Sol Brass quintet will be performing. This brass quintet includes students who are majoring in music performance or music education at Baylor University. Their backgrounds are varied, but all are prodigious musicians in their own rights.
Members of the Baylor Brass all serve as music faculty in the Department of Music.
Wiff Rudd, trumpet, has toured internationally with the Dallas Brass for eight years and is a founding member of Rhythm and Brass. R&B has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and internationally, and has several critically acclaimed recordings.
In addition to serving as principal trumpet with the Waco Symphony, Rudd’s orchestral experience includes work with such orchestras as the Dallas Symphony, Oklahoma Symphony, Houston Symphony and Houston Grand Opera. His experience as a soloist includes the New York premiere performance of Joseph Turrin’s “Chronicles for Trumpet and Wind Symphony” in Carnegie Hall. Rudd is a Yamaha artist/clinician and has presented over 300 clinics and master classes at universities and conservatories, conferences and music festivals across the country.
Mark Schubert is lecturer in trumpet at Baylor. He performed with the Honolulu Symphony for 33 years. Schubert has also performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Pops, the Opera Company of Boston, the Filharmonica de las Americas (Mexico City), the Houston Symphony and the Houston Grand Opera. He graduated from the New England Conservatory and Baylor University. Schubert is also a member of the Waco Symphony and a Yamaha artist/clinician.
Jeffrey Powers, professor of horn, is a native of San Antonio, Texas. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from Austin College and a master of music from the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Powers began his professional career in the Hong Kong Philharmonic, followed by positions with the New Jersey Symphony, Philharmonic of Caracas, Venezuela, and Cleveland Orchestra under Lorin Maazel and Christoph von Dohnanyi. He also held a tenured position with the Royal Philharmonic of Flanders in Antwerp, Belgium. Presently, Powers is principal horn with the Waco Symphony and Abilene Philharmonic Orchestras, and also a member of The Baylor Winds. Powers has recorded five solo CDs to date.
Brent Phillips, director of the Mountain Light Music Festival and associate professor of trombone, began his professional music career with the prestigious “President’s Own” United States Marine Band. He served as a frequent trombone soloist with this outstanding band and performed with the Marine Band Chamber Orchestra. Phillips has also performed with the Dallas Symphony, the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, and the San Antonio and Houston symphony orchestras. He currently is principal trombone with the Waco Symphony and the Abilene Philharmonic.
In addition to numerous solo performances worldwide, Phillips has made recordings with the Marine Band, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, “Performance Today” on public radio, the Stentorian Consort and his own two solo CDs. He has just released his third solo CD titled “Meditations.”
As a soloist, Clay Garrett has won first prize at the Leonard Falcone International Tuba Competition and has been named a finalist or semifinalist for several other competitions including the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference Competition, the Lieksa Brass Week Competition, the International Markneukirchen Competition and the prestigious Concert Artist Guild of New York City. He has also been a soloist with the U.S. Army Band Tuba Workshop and Texas Music Educators Association Convention. Garrett is also an active chamber musician. He is currently pursuing a doctor of musical arts degree at the University of Texas and teaching at Temple College.
To hear all of these tremendous musicians, attend the two concerts which will feature them, the Pagosa Brass and the Mountain Light Festival Brass.
The concerts are Aug. 8 at 6:30 p.m. at Community United Methodist Church and Aug. 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the PLPOA Clubhouse. Tickets for each performance are $25 and can be purchased from the following: Community United Methodist Church, Pagosa Springs Area Chamber of Commerce, Bookends, Choke Cherry Tree, PLPOA, members of the Pagosa Mountain Rotary and Airport Self-Storage.
