News Release

Back to Newsroom

---

Dec. 27, 2006

Contact: Sally Corbett, 404-727-6678, scorbe@emory.edu

Burning River Brass to Heat Up the Stage at Emory’s Schwartz Center

“Burn on, big river, burn on,” goes the Randy Newman song. The “big river” of the song is the Cuyahoga River, a 100-mile waterway that flows through northeast Ohio and empties into Lake Erie at Cleveland. The site of much industrial development, the Cuyahoga was for decades so polluted that it periodically caught fire and burned. One such fire, which occurred on June 22, 1969, attracted the attention of both Time magazine, which published an article on the blaze that spurred efforts to clean the river up, and Newman, who released “Burn On, Big River” in 1972. When a Cleveland-based group of friends formed a brass and percussion ensemble in 1996, they also took inspiration from that infamous blaze and named themselves Burning River Brass. This 12-member ensemble will bring its fiery brand of music making to Emory’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts on Friday, March 2, 2007, at 8 p.m. (tickets: $15, discount category members $10). Burning River Brass will perform a variety of classical and contemporary works, including J.S. Bach’s Fugue, Manuel de Falla’s Suite from “The Three-Cornered Hat,” Goff Richard’s “Hungarian Goulash” from A La Carte, and Anthony DiLorenzo’s “Merlin’s Magic” from “Of Kingdoms and Glory.” As Coca-Cola Artists in Residence, the ensemble will also lead a lecture/demonstration, free and open to the public, on Thursday, March 1, 2007, at 2:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Center. For tickets or more information, call the box office at 404-727-5050 or go to www.arts.emory.edu.

Burning River Brass made its debut in September 1996 in Tremont, Ohio, under the auspices of Arts Renaissance Tremont, an organization that presents free seasonal concerts. Now one of the most respected brass ensembles in the United States and on the international touring circuit, the ensemble is composed of 11 brass players and one percussionist and draws its members from the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and other ensembles. Burning River Brass has appeared on National Public Radio's Performance Today and Sunday Baroque programs. They have released four recordings on the Dorian label: Of Knights and Castles (1999), Russian Carnival (2000), Romanza España: Spanish Masterworks for Brass (2004) and Christmas Around the World (2005). All of the recordings have been praised for their energy, sound, and style.

As for the Cuyahoga today, while portions of it are still classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as on the 43 “Great Lakes Areas of Concerns,” water quality has improved enough that the river was designated as one of 14 American Heritage Rivers in 1998.

###

 Emory Coca-Cola Artists-in-Residence Program

The Emory Coca-Cola Artists in Residence Program seeks to substantially increase the depth, diversity and profile of performing arts education in the Emory and greater Atlanta communities by providing opportunities for meaningful contact with the finest and most significant artists and arts scholars from throughout the world.

---

Back to top