Winter Brass Makes Music Cool

The inaugural tour of Winter Brass has been playing to standing-room only classrooms across Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey during the week of March 13 on a feel-good tour of high schools and middle schools, helping music educators ignite, and in some cases reignite, young people’s enthusiasm for music and music performance.

Eight past and current members of the Cadets and Crossmen have joined with Megh Healy, recently appointed Director of Performing Ensembles, in a brass-fueled tour de force bringing classic YEA! tunes to band rooms and receiving wild applause wherever they play. Megh said after a recent performance, "The school kids went wild asking for autographs and begging for more information on the Winter Brass members. It certainly means a lot for these young players, seven of whom have devoted their spring breaks to performing on this one week tour."

As a pilot program, Winter Brass ’06 is the first step in implementing Fall and Spring tours that presents music in a different light to students in middle and high schools. Beginning in the fall of 2006, the Brass will be producing full scale presentations for entire student bodies, with the goal of increasing participation in music programs throughout the region, thus promoting arts within the schools and as a part of life.

Read the rest of the article here.