RCO and CSO brass sections in Orchestra Hall, Chicago - click image for larger version

High-level international meeting: (L-R) Adolph Herseth, Hans Alting, Bert Langenkamp, Peter Masseurs, and Stephen Burns

When the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra did not make its usual yearly tour to the USA in 2003, the American Friends of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra decided to invite the brass section of the orchestra instead. This was the first time the whole brass section performed together as a group, after performing in smaller sections for many years. After this tour to New York and Philadelphia, the brass players were so enthusiastic that they decided to perform together more often. As a result, they gave very successful concerts in 2004 at the Canal Festival and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Frits Philips Hall in Eindhoven.

In 2005 the American Friends of the RCO invited them again for their yearly fundraising. As the meeting was planned in Chicago – where a large number of Dutch people live – the idea came to organize a project with the world-famous brass of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

After rehearsals and two try-out concerts in the Netherlands, the RCO brass went to Chicago on April 30, 2005. After only one rehearsal and a pre-concert run-through with the Chicago Symphony brass section, they gave a concert together in the Chicago Symphony Hall performing mostly adaptations of big orchestral works, like Jupiter from The Planets (Holst), Pini di Roma (Respighi), Nimrod from the Enigma Variations (Elgar) and Lieutenant Kije (Prokofiev). The American composer Raphael Mostel wrote a composition, Night and Dawn, commissioned by the Netherlands-America-Foundation, to commemorate the liberation of the Netherlands sixty years ago. In this composition, the horn players of the RCO played on shofar to commemorate the Jewish members of the RCO. The concert, conducted by trombone players Jay Friedman and Ivan Meylemans, was a huge success. More than 2500 friends of the CSO were present, amongst them guests of honor Adolph Herseth and Anna Roosevelt (the granddaughter of Franklin D. Roosevelt).

The RCO brass also gave concerts and masterclasses at Drake University in Des Moines, Grinell College, and North Western University in Chicago. Especially for these concerts, RCO timpanist Nick Woud wrote a composition, The Call, in which all the sections of the brass get a chance to solo after which the piece is concluded by a grand theme for the entire brass.

It is hoped that the brass of the Chicago Symphony will be able to revisit this unique project in Amsterdam in the future. In the meanwhile the RCO brass has already carried out their next tour to the USA, with New York concerts at Landmark on the Park (February 16, 2006) and Rockefeller University (February 17).

Websites:
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Brass (both sites in Dutch and English)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra