Time:
Thursday
December, 21, 2023
02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Location:
W183
Category
Professional Chamber Ensemble
Performer Details
Performer Bio Synopsis
The critically acclaimed, internationally recognized Sotto Voce Quartet is currently enjoying their 25th year together. They are America’s premiere professional quartet of its kind and has become one of the world’s leading low brass ensembles. The quartet enthusiastically challenges preconceived notions about what tubas can do by composing, arranging, and commissioning virtuosic new works that highlight the diversity of their ensemble and its unique membership. Sotto Voce has three recordings on the Summit Records label: “Consequences,” “Viva Voce,” and “Refractions,” and has independently released their latest album, “Take This Hammer” featuring works composed specifically for Sotto Voce. Having attained an international reputation for serious chamber music, their performances have been showcased on Performance Today and their recordings are often played on Classical Music NPR stations throughout the U.S. The ensemble maintains an active international touring schedule throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In recent years, their tours have taken them to Norway, Austria, France, Canada, Wisconsin, Mississippi, and along the East Coast. The quartet has held prominent performing/judging roles in the past six International Tuba/Euphonium Conferences and have also been invited to give concerts and clinics at various state music educator conferences including the prestigious “Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic” and Texas Music Educators’ Conference.
The artists who make up the quartet have widely diverse careers in music and are regularly in demand as performers, composers, and clinicians. Demondrae Thurman is the Professor of Euphonium at Indiana University while also teaching low brass at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. His solo CDs “Soliloquies,” “Songs of a Wayfarer,” and “Snapshots” are available on Summit Records. Demondrae is also active as a conductor and plays the baritone horn with the Brass Band of Battle Creek. Mark Carlson is an Associate Professor of Music at Mount Saint Mary’s University. In addition to teaching academic courses Mark teaches applied low brass and directs all the university’s instrumental ensembles. Derek Fenstermacher is the Principal Tubist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and teaches at Winthrop University, The Manhattan School of Music and Baird Conservatory. Mike Forbes has forged a career as an international performer/composer and teaches at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. He manages the Sotto Voce Quartet, Isthmus Brass, and eBrassMusic.com—a sheet music site for his works. An avid recording artist, he has a dozen solo and chamber recordings to his credit.
Sotto Voce Tuba Quartet
Conductor's Bio
TBD
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