Description
Monday, September 14 • 7 PM • BKCM Concert Hall @ 58 7th Ave
Join us at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music for performances by Pablo Masis’ Sparks and the Jim Seeley Quintet on the first night of this year’s Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT). Tickets are $20, and can be purchased on FONT’s website.
7:00 PM: Pablo Masis’ Sparks
BKCM faculty member and trumpeter Pablo Masis’ Sparks features Pablo Masis on trumpet, Nitsan Kolko on piano, Mathias Jensen on bass, and Angus Mason on drums.
Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Pablo Masis grew up in northern Arizona on the Navajo Indian Reservation and in Billings, Montana. He has a Bachelor of Music in Trumpet Performance from Lawrence University, where he studied with Robert Levy, and a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of New Orleans, where he studied with Terence Blanchard and Clyde Kerr Jr. Since moving to New York City in 2009 he has become an active freelancer and educator. He has performed at New York venues including Joe’s Pub, The Blue Note, The Dimenna Center, The Waldorf Astoria, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Irving Plaza, Littlefield, and The Cornelia Street Cafe. Pablo has appeared across the United States and Europe including New York, Seattle, Portland, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Kansas City, Washington DC, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Poland.
8:00 PM: Jim Seeley Quintet
The Jim Seeley Quintet is: Jim Seeley (trumpet/flugelhorn, Ivan Renta (tenor saxophone/flugelhorn), Camila Cortina (piano), Raul Reyes (bass), and JC Polo (drums).
Jazz Trumpeter Jim Seeley has recorded, toured, and performed as a featured soloist with Ray Charles, Greg Allman, Maynard Ferguson, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, Louis Bellson, The Duke Ellington Orchestra, The Machito Orchestra, Chico O’Farrill’s Afro Cuban Orchestra, and is an original member of The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Arturo O’Farrill, which has won seven Grammy Awards. Also active as a teacher and clinician, he’s been on the faculty at numerous institutions including Jazz @ Lincoln Center’s Middle School Jazz Program, The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and currently with The Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, leading student jazz ensembles and giving trumpet instruction. Jim has worked as a clinician around the world, including in Thailand, Japan, Hawaii, Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, across Europe and throughout the United States.
About the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT)
The Festival of New Trumpet Music is committed to the support of new music by a diverse community of trumpet and brass players, and the presentation of their work to the public.
The Festival aims to promote opportunity, encourage diversity, and enable community for and among trumpet players and those with whom they work. Through programming and educational events, FONT Music strives towards three main goals:
- Celebrating and promoting the diversity of contemporary music related to the trumpet by presenting the broadest possible idea of what a trumpet player can do.
- Confronting and challenging traditional boundaries of gender, race, and culture in the music field by presenting the broadest possible idea of who a trumpet player can be.
- Supporting emerging artists and creative pioneers through concerts, commissions, and other opportunities.
FONT Music works with trumpet players and composers to assist them in realizing their artistic vision. By connecting artists with venues, funding and promotional resources, FONT Music attempts to make this process as open and collaborative as possible.
The Festival’s work is centered on the production of a two festival of concerts and workshops held annually in New York City in September, as well as off-season and satellite events, and collaborative artist services. FONT also presents an annual Award of Recognition to a distinguished trumpet player who has made an important contribution to the instrument.
The FONT Music Board are working trumpet players committed to expanding the opportunities for our instrument as well as for our fellow musicians. We embrace the process of collaboration with other players and composers that comes with producing FONT Music as it deepens our understanding of what is possible.
FONT Music is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization.