by Evan Kory

Betsy Bright, trumpet; Tim McCarthy, trumpet; and David Morgan, tuba. This performance, the first time brass instruments have been played in the Benderly-Kendall Opera House, presented a bright and cheerful start to the holiday season. The Monsoon Brass is a larger organization of brass players, all professional musicians based in Tucson, AZ. The Monsoon Brass Trio is an iteration of the larger organization, and this concert was their debut.

Many of the works performed in the concert were arrangements by Betsy Bright. The piece composed by Mozart was originally written for “basset” horns, a member of the clarinet family of musical instruments. Fortunately, the work plays well on brass instruments. The trio is an incredibly virtuosic group, we highly recommend listening to the second to last piece “Carnival of Venice”, each musician shows the incredible range of each instrument- we promise you’ve never heard a tuba like this!

Program: J.S. Bach, arr. Bright: 3 Part Invention No. 8 Mozart, arr. Bright: Divertimento No. 3 KV 439b arr. Allan Dean: Glogauer liederbuch arr. Bright: Sailing Overture Bright: Western Suite arr. Bright: Scarborough Fair arr. Bright: Tumbalalaika J.B. Arban, arr. Bright: Carnival of Venice arr. Bright: That’s a Plenty

You can watch the video of the live-streamed performance on our Archives page.