Gary Mortenson, reporter

“High-energy” might be the best way to describe the Synergy Brass Quintet. The members of this group include Bobby Thorp and Chris O'Hara - trumpets, Jon Hurrell - horn, Bo Clifton - trombone, and Nick Gonzalez - tuba. The show opened with the group spread around the hall and commenced with the sounds of the homophonic chorale-like music of Thomas Tallis…simply stated, yet eloquent opening. Synergy Brass performs from memory and moves around a lot to make their presentation interesting to a wide range of tastes. I can imagine that the more than 250 performances this group has done in the last six months are of great interest to younger audiences…their enthusiasm is infectious! The high-energy nature of what they do with and to their repertoire was in evidence in their rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov's Procession of the Nobles. Excellent playing along with superb showmanship is this groups strength. William Byrd's Earl of Oxford's March featured blazing fingers and great communication among the performers. These guys work well together and seem to like each other, and it shows.

By this point in the show it became apparent that the format of this presentation is in the form of a unique exercise in music appreciation. Synergy is both educational and enjoyable. Two works from Bach's cantatas (No. 78 and 140) displayed the group's polish and served as a great vehicle to a greater appreciation for Bach's contrapuntal style. Their rendition of Wachet Auf was especially sensitive lending good variety to the program.

The program moved into the 20th century with an arrangement of the major themes from Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring proving to be a good vehicle to highlight their ability to play a wide range of dynamics with proper balance, intonation, and control. Today's “lesson” moved on to opera with Rossini's overture from The Barber of Seville. This was followed by jaunts into the realm of jazz and blues with the music of Gershwin and W. C. Handy respectively. No matter what stylistic period Synergy is visiting there is one common denominator…they are having fun, and let's face it, we all have more fun and learn more effectively when we are having fun!

Synergy Brass is comprised of strong musicians that can memorize vast amounts of music and can perform a wide-variety of literature with consistency and flair. They are doing important work by maintaining a grueling schedule to bring live music to large numbers of people. To do this they endure the travel and inconvenience of being constantly on the road. This is “young man's work” and I wish them well in their travels and development!