Top brass: A new Frontier of band music

A unique kind of band will present free concerts this weekend at two metro-area high schools.

At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the Frontier Brass Band will perform at Southmoore High School. A second concert is planned for 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Edmond Santa Fe High School auditorium.

A brass band uses only horn instruments and some percussion instruments.

One of the musicians is Sarah Neely, band director at Edmond Santa Fe High School. She said the genre of music is popular in Europe, especially Great Britain.

“Almost every community in Great Britain has a brass band,” she said. “The bands have competitions with each other.”

She said brass bands are a growing trend in the United States.

The Frontier Brass Band has been in existence for a few years and generally performs four concerts a year. This weekend the band will be under the For more information about the Frontier Brass Band, check out its Facebook page, or listen to a performance on YouTube. direction of Michael Hancock, assistant director of bands at the University of Oklahoma.

The ensemble is made up of about 35 musicians such as Neely who have day jobs, usually related to music. She said all are there for the pure enjoyment of playing music and performing for others.

“We aren’t getting paid,” she said. “We love to play and perform. These concerts remind us why we love music and want to teach it."

Allen Correll is director of bands at East Central University. A few years ago, he conducted the first concert.

"It was a thrilling experience to rehearse and conduct such a stellar group of musicians on their first concert," Correll said. "The performance was one of the highlights of my career. I'm now a brass band fan."

Another former conductor, Matthew Mireles, now director of bands at St. Mary's in San Antonio, had a similar experience.

"As the conductor of the Frontier Brass Band, I had the pleasure of making high-quality music with the top brass musicians in Oklahoma," he said.

"Audiences are always enthusiastic about upcoming shows, because the energy Frontier performs with is tremendous."

Neely said the band varies the kind of music it plays. Since she joined, there have been no vocals.

“We’ve done Sousa marches, jazz standards, music from movies and even ‘Amazing Grace,’” she said.

Neely also has performed with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

The brass players are the dominant instruments in the band. Usually, three to six percussionists are involved.