Gino Santo with the Essential Brass playing David Short's Tribute to H. L. Clarke

Fred Mills during the David Short concert

From June 26 to July 2 the third annual Tubilustrium Festival, supported by Yamaha Italy and Palladium Music, was held at the "Ada Campagna" Scuola Civica di Musica (Public Music School) in Mendicino, Italy. The name Tubilustrium comes from the annual trumpet festival in ancient Rome, from the Latin tuba for trumpet.

Twenty students from different parts of Italy attended the festival. Teachers at the festival were trumpet players Fred Mills (Georgia University, former member of the Canadian Brass), David Short (National Italian Radio Orchestra of Rome) and Gino Santo (The Brass Collection and artistic director of the festival) and trombone players Mark McConnell (Atlanta Opera Orchestra) and Antonio Sicoli (Orchestra Regionale Toscana).

There was a concert each evening. The opening concert was by The Brass Collection, who hosted the Tubilustrium festival for the third time. The members of the quintet are Luigi (Gino) Santo and Egisto Pisani (trumpet), Massimo Celiberto (horn), Francesco Gagliardi (trombone) and Francesco Lucchino (tuba). The programme was:

• D. Gillis: Just a Closer Walk
• G. Delerue: Vitrail
• A. Vivaldi – J.S. Bach/Baldwin: Concerto
• J. S. Bach/Luther Henderson: Dixie Bach
• N. Rimsky-Korsakov/ Howard Cable: The Flight of the Tuba Bee
• Trad./Irvine: Tuba Polka
• W. C. Handy/Luther Henderson: Beale Street Blues
• Traditional – G. F. Handel/Luther Henderson: The Saints’ Hallelujah

The second concert was a performance by two brass quintets. Essential Brass from Basilicata has Carlo Luongo and Pino Melfi on trumpet, Piero Manca on french horn, Antonio Pace on trombone and Sebastiano Lamorte on tuba. They played music by Gino Santo, David Short, J.S. Bach and Fred Mills. A highlight of this concert was the world première of David Short’s Tribute to H. L. Clarke for cornet and brass quintet with Gino Santo as soloist. The second brass quintet in this concert was Evolution Brass from Sicily; their members are Rosario Battiato, Yuri Furnai, Matteo Frisenna, Dafni Pinzone Rosario Rizzo. They played music by Luther Henderson, Henry Mancini, Nino Rota, G. F. Handel and M. Rodriguez.

The third concert featured the music of David Short. Fred Mills and Gino Santo performed David Short’s Fanfare for two trumpets. The Essential Brass played a number of original compositions and arrangements by David Short including another performance of Tribute to H. L. Clarke. The concert finished with Seven Days for trombone and percussion with Mark McConnell on trombone and Massimo Belmonte on percussion.

The fourth concert, "La Tromba e il repertorio solistico" (The trumpet and the solo repertoire) featured masterclass students. Michele Lovito played Concerto No. 3 by B. Shelokov, Antonello Strammiello played the Hummel Concerto and Carlo Luongo played the Concert piece by Willy Brandt.

In the final concert, "The Brass Collection presents Fred Mills and Mark McConnell", Fred Mills played his own arrangement of the Hummel concerto for trumpet and brass quintet. Other pieces played were Tête à Tête, a duet for trumpet and flugelhorn by R. Farnon, played by Fred Mills and Gino Santo, Fandango, a duet for trumpet and trombone by Joseph Turrin, played by Fred Mills and Mark McConnell, Fred Mills arrangement of Bizet’s Carmen, Huapango, a traditional Mexican piece where everyone got a chance to shine, and finally Fred Mills performed as a soloist in Tico Tico by Z. Abreu.

Website:
The Brass Collection (in Italian and English)
Yamaha Italy (in Italian)