Rockville Brass Band Presents Free Concert At Fitzgerald Theater

ROCKVILLE, MD — Women with horns — tubas, euphoniums, trombones, and cornets — will be performing a free concert Sunday afternoon at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theater in Rockville.

The program will feature performances by the award-winning Rockville Brass Band, led by music director Rachel Zephir. They will be joined by a quintet drawn from the first all-female, international brass ensemble, the Athena Brass Band and legendary tuba soloist Jan Z. Duga.

“Women play major roles as creators on the brass scene," Zephir said. "They are conductors, performers, composers, arrangers, and teachers of the next generation of brass musicians. The Rockville Brass Band draws on some of the best, who graduated from conservatories to military bands or to the podiums of school bands throughout Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties.”

The Rockville Brass Band will be performing “Luminosity” by American classicist Nancy Galbraith; “Bugler’s Holiday," a crowd-pleasing tune played by lead cornetists Olivia Malin, Ginger Turner, and Diana Wensley; and an arrangement of George Frederic Handel's “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" by English jazz and funk composer Lucy Pankhurst.

Backed by the Rockville Brass Band, Jan Z. Duga will perform the tuba solo “Capriccio” by Rodney Newton.

“It's always a thrill to play with great brass players but to be on stage with amazing women brass players fills my heart with joy,” said Ginger Turner of Athena Brass Band. “In this life it's important to be part of something greater than ourselves. We will experience that in this concert with Athena and the great Rockville Brass Band."

Athena Brass Band will perform Gwyneth Walker's "Raise the Roof" and "A Sea Suite" by Dorothy Gates.

The free women with horns concert will take place Sunday, Oct. 15, at 3 p.m., at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theater located at 603 Edmonston Drive in Rockville.