MIC Welcomes Attacca-Axiom Quintets for Joint Concert, 4/15

Showcasing two of its accomplished ensembles-in-residence, the Music Institute of Chicago presents Quintet Attacca and Axiom Brass in a joint concert April 15 at Nichols Concert Hall, in Evanston, Illinois.

Quintet Attacca is slated to perform George Gershwin’s Three Preludes, Irving Fine’s Partita for Wind Quintet, and R. Murray Schafer’s Minnelieder—Love Songs from the Medieval German for Mezzo-Soprano and Wind Quintet, featuring Music Institute faculty member and mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley.

Axiom Brass will perform David Sampson’s Morning Music, James M. Stephenson’s Celestial Suite, and Astor Piazzolla’s Ave Maria, arranged by Axiom founding member Dorival Puccini, Jr.

Quintet Attacca is an ensemble dedicated to bringing the unique sound of the wind quintet to all types of audiences; to this end, the quintet has played in venues across the Midwest, with extensive programming in Chicago. Quintet Attacca was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2002 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, one of only two wind quintets in the competition’s 35-year history to receive the Grand Prize. The quintet has spent the past three years in residence with the Chicago Chamber Musicians’ Professional Development Program, as well as being in residence at the Music Institute of Chicago and Lake Forest College.

Winner of the 2008 International Chamber Brass Competition and prize winner of the 2010 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, the Preis der Europa-Stadt Passau, the Plowman Chamber Music Competition, and the Jeju City International Brass Quintet Competition in South Korea, Axiom Brass is dedicated to enhancing the musical life of communities across the globe. Axiom’s repertoire ranges from jazz and Latin music to string quartet transcriptions, as well as original compositions for brass quintet. In addition to being an ensemble-in-residence at the Music Institute of Chicago, Axiom Brass has been appointed to the faculty of Boston University Tanglewood Institute for summer 2012.

Quintet Attacca and Axiom Brass perform Sunday, April 15 at 3 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston. Tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for students, available online or 847.905.1500.