by Mike Telin
In February of 2009, when British Airways pilot Jim Trott was helping to store 30 past-their-prime brass instruments that were destined for the scrap yard, he had the idea of finding a home for them on his next flight to Uganda. Today Brass for Africa, a U.K.-based non-profit organization that uses music to empower and improve the lives of extremely disadvantaged young people in Uganda, supports more than 1,000 children and young people each week through brass music education.
Trombone professor Lee Allen and six of his Oberlin Conservatory students spent two weeks in Kampala last January immersing themselves in Brass for Africa programs. “It was a very interesting and humbling cultural experience for myself and for the students,” Allen said during a telephone conversation. On Sunday, May 6 at 4:30 pm at the Church of the Covenant in Cleveland’s University Circle, the Oberlin Trombone Choir under Allen’s direction will present a benefit concert for Brass for Africa. Donations, which will be used to purchase and transport used brass instruments to BFA outreach centers, may be made in cash at the door or online.
Allen said that he first became aware of BFA via his friend and fellow trombonist Taylor Hughey. [Read more…]
Vespers is the only service of the medieval church outside of Mass to have survived and prospered from the Protestant Reformation. Some elaborate musical settings of this early evening rite have come from the Roman Catholic pens of Claudio Monteverdi and Wolfgang Amadè Mozart, but the tradition has really gone on to thrive in Lutheran and Anglican circles, where musical Vespers services and Choral Evensongs have inspired countless settings of the psalms and canticles (especially the Magnificat) which form the backbone of the service. 
Cornettist Bruce Dickey has been an important figure in bringing the cornetto back from extinction. Not by growing its ancient DNA in a laboratory, but by mastering it, teaching it, and performing on it in solo recitals and ensembles. Last week, he appeared in concerts with Italian organist Lieuwe Tamminga at Oberlin and at Cleveland’s Church of the Covenant, and later this month, he’ll join Apollo’s Fire for performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, both locally and on tour. 
Now that the greater Cleveland area can boast housing two significant organs tuned in mean-tone temperament, early music fans can enjoy the unusual opportunity of hearing a pair of nearly back-to-back recitals featuring the celebrated cornettist Bruce Dickey and his distinguished associate, organist Lieuwe Tamminga. Dickey and Tamminga will perform on Friday evening, October 10 at 7:30 pm in Fairchild Chapel at Oberlin College and again on Sunday afternoon, October 12 at 2:00 pm at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle. 
