Vintage Band Festival

We continue to highlight our national and international bands and our Minnesota bands that will play next summer. In this issue we feature two groups,Passion des Cuivres, one of our 2006 bands from Berlin and Chicago Brass Band from, well . . . Chicago!

Passion des Cuivres

The 19th century was a period of radical change for all musical instruments but none more so than for the brass family. The application of precision engineering enabled the old natural instruments (the horn and the trumpet) to join the trombone in the ranks of the fully chromatic. The invention of the valve was to revolutionize brass technique and to open up a whole new world of melodic possibilities for brass instruments. New instruments were now capable of competing with woodwind and strings with their enhanced melodic and expressive capabilities. However much of the legacy of these early chromatic brass pioneers has been lost to us.

Passion des Cuivres a quintet from Berlin, Germany that was with us at the 2006 Vintage Band Music Festival, performs music of this time with as much adherence to contemporary practices as possible. The ensemble’s choice of instruments is: two cornets (from French, British and German provenance; doubling natural trumpet and narrow-bore valve trumpet when necessary), single F horn, narrow-bore trombone and ophicleide. The ophicleide is the only keyed member of the quintet.

Chicago Brass Band

The Chicago Brass Band is a thirty piece brass and percussion ensemble that performs concerts throughout the year in the Chicago Metropolitan Area in addition to participating in festivals and competitions throughout the world. Under the direction of international award-winning conductor Dr. Colin Holman, the band performs music in the British brass band tradition but with a Chicago flair.

Composed of cornets, flugel and tenor horns, baritones, euphoniums, trombones, tubas and percussion, the Band’s repertoire includes classical transcriptions, popular music, jazz, traditional, show tunes, marches and original works for brass band. The Chicago Brass Band placed second in the Championship Section of the 2009 North American Brass Band Association competition.

January News
We’ve now crossed the threshold into 2010 and the excitement is building for the festival. There are less than 8 months until showtime and we hope you’ve reserved the dates on your calendar: August 5-8, 2010 in Northfield, Minnesota and surrounding communities.

Between now and the beginning of the festival, we’ll continue on this page to highlight our national and international bands and our Minnesota bands that will play next summer. We highlight two groups, Tschecharanka and Independent Silver Band .
Tschecharanka: From the Heart of Europe
The Bohemian style wind band Tschecharanka performs brass dance and military music as it has been played in the Moravia and Czech regions for more than a century.  The group was founded in September 1999 by Thomas Zsivkovits, and started as a student group at the University of Graz Department of Music and Arts. Zsivkovits, himself a student at the time, has kept the ensemble of current and former students active for a decade.
The 12 members are from communities in South Burgenland, near the Hungarian border, and also near the Austrian region of Styria. Most of the veteran members are music teachers, amateurs, and university students. The band consists of trumpets, clarinets, trombones, baritones, tuba, and drums.
In its 10 years Tschecharanka has released five CDs with traditional Bohemian polka music  as well as some new modern arrangements . The band has performed throughout Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland. This is the first tour that the group has made outside Europe.
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New Collector’s Pin Available
We’ve received the official VBMF 2010 cloisonne collector’s pin that is available for any contribution at the $25 level and above. In Northfield, the VBF pin (also your festival pass) can be obtained at the Northfield News, By All Means Graphics, Graphic Mailbox, Northfield Historical Society, Northfield Arts Guild, and the Nortfield Chamber of Commerce.
We will send you a receipt acknowledging your contribution. This is all you need to qualify for a deduction on your income tax. In addition, your donation may qualify you for additional benefits during the festival, such as performer receptions, T shirts, etc.
Please send your contribution via check to:
Vintage Band Music Festival  2010,PMB 130,204 W. 7th Street Northfield, MN 55057
If you would rather use your credit card, you can do so through our PayPal account. Simply click on the paypal link and fill in the appropriate information.Another location that accepts contributions on behalf of VBMF 2010 is givemn.org. Mastercard and Visa are accepted.

By all these ways to give, you will receive your VBF pin!

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Independent Silver Band
The Independent Silver Band was formed in 2004 in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. The model that the band chose is that of an American town band of the 1880’s period.  They began getting requests to do Civil War music, so they chose to do a Civil War impression of an actual band modeled after a regiment from Southern Illinois, the 48th Illinois Volunteers, nicknamed “Pharoah’s Army”.
Their instruments are not built with the close tolerances that exist with modern instruments and this causes leaks which can cause intonation problems.  Many of the instruments were played in “high pitch” which was approximately A=445 vibrations per second, as opposed to the modern pitch of A=440.  The instrumentation requires a mixture, which means modifications to the instruments had to be made.
The band plays all styles of historic band music and time periods as the situation dictates.  In their concert titled “ISB and Beyond,” they feature a couple of swing tunes.  In addition to a concert schedule, the Independent Silver Band has accompanied choruses and church services.