In anticipation of a performance at the North Carolina Music Educators Association Convention in Winston-Salem, the award-winning Triangle Brass Band presents its first formal concert of the season, Fire in the Blood.

The evening’s program consists of several exciting works, and features many distinguished guest artists. Triangle Brass’ own Mitch Townley (Eb Soprano Cornet) leads off with Flowerdale from Hymn of the Highlands (Philip Sparke). Also featured is UNC School of the Arts faculty member, David Dash (trumpet), who performs Concertpiece for Cornet, by composer and music scholar, James Curnow, led by the composer himself!

UNC School of the Arts professor Mark Norman leads the band on a world-premiere performance of a brass band arrangement of Eric Whitacre’s classic tone poem, October. This arrangement was created by the Artistic Director of the Triangle Youth Brass Band program, Jesse Rackley. Other selections on the program include the exciting Scherzo, from Symphony No. 10, by Shostakovich, the dramatic overture to La forza del destino, by Giuseppe Verdi, and the lovely Sunrise Over Blue Ridge, by Dan Price.

The concert concludes with the title work, Fire in the Blood, by Paul Lovatt-Cooper. This monumental work is the composer’s tribute to the 120th anniversary of the International Staff Band of the Salvation Army, and the profound influence that the Salvationist music program has had on his life, and on the lives of all musicians involved in the brass band movement.