The Cavaliers Brass Go Big in Texas
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(ROSEMONT, Ill.) — The Cavaliers Drum & Bugle Corps is honored and proud to be featured as a performing artist at the 2022 Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA).
The Cavaliers will be busy in their own way during Super Bowl week with a series of events involving The University of Texas in Austin and the Texas Music Educators Association Convention in San Antonio.
A group of brass players representing the 2021 and 2022 corps will be heading to Austin for rehearsals to prepare for clinics, master classes and performances. The centerpiece will be the first clinic done by a drum corps at the TMEA convention titled “Go Play Outside! The Cavaliers Orchestral Approach to Brass” featuring brass staff Michael Martin, Drew Dickey, Kevin LeBeouf, and Freddy Martin. This will take place in San Antonio on Thursday February 10th from 2:30 to 3:30 in the CC Stars at Night Ballroom 3-4. We hope all of our alumni and friends at the convention will attend as admission is by convention badge only. Along with demonstration exercises, the brass will perform three pieces. One will be the “Adagietto” from Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler arranged by Michael Martin. The clinic will close with a setting of Peter Meechan’s Song of Hope, written for and dedicated to Ryan Anthony, the Dallas Symphony trumpet player who started Cancer Blows, a foundation set up to raise awareness and money to further the research that has helped give their family a hope for a future following Ryan’s diagnosis of Multiple Myeloma. Professor Jerry Junkin of the University of Texas will be the guest conductor of this piece.
In the middle of the clinic, The Cavaliers brass and guests will premiere Scherzo Verde by Katahj Copley (https://www.katahjcopleymusic.com). Katahj is a young composer that is excited to contribute his composition to the clinic. “I’m so incredibly honored to announce this collaboration with The Cavaliers Brass and an all star line up of soloists. At first I didn’t know what to write for this performance. I didn’t even know what to call it at first! But then it hit me: Green. While it might be a generic topic I’ve always viewed the color green as a light hearted color and also people view the name scherzo as being fun and light hearted as well. I wanted to flip the lightheartedness and go for a piece that is energetic, times scary, and groovy. Thus Scherzo Verde was born; combining the technique and the distinct to create something oddly unique.”
Joining The Cavaliers on the Copley and Meechan pieces will be guest artists from the brass community who will be part of the clinic and talk about orchestral playing aligns with The Cavaliers approach to brass pedagogy. Those artists are:
Jens Lindemann, Trumpet (https://www.trumpetsolo.com)
José Sibaja, Trumpet (https://www.josesibaja.com)
Chris Castellanos, French horn (http://www.chriscastellanos.com/)
Victoria Garcia, Trombone (http://www.seraphbrass.com/about/artists/victoria-garcia)
William Russell, Tuba (https://bostonbrass.com/about/william-russell-tuba/)
In addition to being part of the clinic on Thursday, they will be presenting master classes on Tuesday for members of The Cavaliers and brass students at The University of Texas.
The trumpet and baritone/trombone players of The Cavaliers will also be performing with The University of Texas Wind Ensemble twice during the week as the extra brass for Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome. The performance features Omar Thomas’ The Low-Down Brown Get-Down, the Arutunian Trumpet Concerto with UT Trumpet Professor Billy Hunter, and ends with Pines. The first performance will be 7:30 PM on Wednesday February 9th, on the UT campus in Bates Recital Hall. Tickets can be purchased here (https://music.utexas.edu/events/1044-wind-ensemble) The second performance will be in the featured concert at the TMEA Convention at 8:30 PM on Friday February 11th in the Lila Cockrell Theatre. Admission to this concert is by TMEA badge only and will be completely full so arrive early if you want to see this event.
While we are in San Antonio, we are collaborating with our partner Ultimate Drill Book to do a presentation at their booth on the convention floor. Friday afternoon at 2:30, members of The Cavaliers brass along with visual staff Patrick Forrester and Brad Klemmensen will be demonstrating our visual technique and how we utilize UDB products. We hope to see people there at the UDB booth, #1335.
As they say, everything is bigger in Texas and The Cavaliers plan on doing it up in a big way while we are there.
And if you want to see The Cavaliers perform this summer, you are in luck as the corps will be in Texas for four performances July 21 in Round Rock, July 22 in Houston, July 23 in San Antonio and July 25 in Mesquite. Tickets for these performances can be purchased at www.dci.org.
Don’t Miss The Cavaliers at TMEA!
TMEA 2022 is WEDNESDAY, February 9 through Saturday, FEBRUARY 12. You can find out more information at TMEA.ORG
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS
The Cavaliers were founded in 1948 from Boy Scout Troop 111 by the late Don Warren. One of the most successful drum and bugle corps in history, The Cavaliers have won 20 national championships, including seven Drum Corps International world championships, since 1992.
The Cavaliers provide a variety of life-changing educational and performance programs for young people that go beyond music and performing arts to build personal accountability, excellence, teamwork and camaraderie. Programs include GearWORKS, Cavaliers Indoor Percussion, Chromium Winds, Crystal Lake Thunder and Midwest Connection.
A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, The Cavaliers, Inc. is sponsored by the Village of Rosemont, Ill.