The New York Philharmonic Principal Brass Quintet

The Principal Brass, a quintet of principal brass players from the New York Philharmonic, enjoys worldwide exposure and an international reputation.

The group's debut came in 1983 when they joined with the Canadian Brass for a concert in Ottawa, Canada. This was the beginning of a regular musical collaboration between these two brass quintets. Subsequent joint performances brought them to the summer festivals of Tanglewood, Wolf Trap, Great Woods, and Mostly Mozart, as well as concerts in cities throughout Canada and the United States. The Principal Brass, with their brass colleagues from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra, collaborated with the Canadian Brass in four recordings.

The Principal Brass has hosted an annual Christmas Holiday Concert at Avery Fisher Hall since 1995. Joining as guests on this extravaganza have been Lee Musiker and his jazz trio, the Canadian Brass, the German Brass, the West Point Brass, Percussion, and Vocalists, Sesame Street’s Bob McGrath, and the Salvation Army's New York Staff Band.

The Principal Brass and the New York Staff Band have also joined forces in two Gala Festivals at Alice Tully Hall in New York. In addition, The Principal Brass performed with the Empire Brass at the Carnegie Hall Centennial Gala in May 1991.

The Principal Brass has been a regular encore feature on the Philharmonic’s tours of Europe, South America, Asia, and the United States, in addition to Philharmonic residencies in Cagliari, Italy, and Vail, Colorado. In addition to performing at the 2009 International Trumpet Guild Conference, the ensemble has performed solo concerts in major universities and cities throughout the United States. International visits have included Germany (Berlin and Munich), Luxembourg, Mexico (Monterey), China (Shanghai), and Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo). Having toured Japan in 1999, 2003 and 2007 the Principal Brass will visit again in 2012.

Bucky Pizzarelli - Guitar

For more than six decades, the legendary Bucky Pizzarelli has had a stellar career. "The complete jazz musician", he was a fixture in jazz and the studios since the early '50s. The list of big bands and vocalists with whom Bucky has performed and recorded reads like a veritable Who's Who of Jazz. One of the era's most solid rhythm players, Pizzarelli was in high demand, playing and touring with Benny Goodman, Zoot Sims, Bud Freeman, and Stephane Grappelli, and, later, recording with George Van Eps, Carl Kress and George Barnes. His superior mastery of the seven-string guitar is unparalleled. The beloved guitarist has developed a very personal style that sets him apart. He lives in Saddle River, New Jersey, with his wife, Ruth.

John Mackey - Composer

John Mackey, born October 1, 1973, in New Philadelphia, Ohio, holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Corigliano and Donald Erb, respectively. Mr. Mackey particularly enjoys writing music for dance and for symphonic winds, and he has focused on those mediums for the past few years.

John has received numerous commissions from the Parsons Dance Company, as well as commissions from the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, the Dallas Theater Center, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, the New York Youth Symphony, Ailey 2, Concert Artists Guild, Peridance Ensemble, and Jeanne Ruddy Dance, among many others. Recent commissions include works for the American Bandmasters Association, the Dallas Wind Symphony, and a concerto for New York Philharmonic Principal Trombonist Joseph Alessi.

As a frequent collaborator, John has worked with a diverse range of artists, from Doug Varone to David Parsons, from Robert Battle to the US Olympic Synchronized Swim Team. (The team won a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics performing to Mackey's score, "Damn.")

John has been recognized with numerous grants and awards from organizations including ASCAP (Concert Music Awards, 1999 through 2008; Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, 2002 and 2003), the American Music Center (Margaret Jory Fairbanks Copying Assistance Grant, 2000, 2002), and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust (Live Music for Dance commissioning grants, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2005), and an NEA grant in 2007. He was a CalArts/Alpert Award nominee in 2000.

In February 2003, the Brooklyn Philharmonic premiered John’s work “Redline Tango” at the BAM Opera House, with Kristjan Jarvi conducting. The Dallas Symphony, under Andrew Litton, performed the piece in both Dallas and Vail in 2004. Mr. Litton performed the work again in 2005, this time with the Minnesota Orchestra, and again in 2006 with the Bergen Philharmonic of Norway. Marin Alsop performed the work at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in the summer of 2005. John made a new version of the work for wind ensemble in 2004 -- Mackey's first work for wind band -- and that version has since received over 250 performances worldwide. The wind version won the 2004 Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize, and in 2005, the ABA/Ostwald Award from the American Bandmasters Association, making John the youngest composer to receive the honor. John again received the ABA/Ostwald Award - as well as the National Band Association's William D. Revelli Award - in 2009 for "Aurora Awakes."

John served as a Meet-The-Composer/American Symphony Orchestra League "Music Alive!" Composer In Residence with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony in 2002-2003, and with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra in 2004-2005. He was Composer In Residence at the Vail Valley Music Festival in Vail, Colorado, in the summer of 2004, and Composer In Residence at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in August 2005. He has held college residencies at Florida State, University of Georgia, Georgia State University, James Madison University, Kansas State University, University of Kansas, University of Florida, University of Alabama, University of Arizona, University of Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State University, Texas Tech, Ball State, University of Oklahoma, Arizona State, Oklahoma State University, University of Washington, University of Southern California, University of Texas, and many others. Mr. Mackey served as Music Director of the Parsons Dance Company from 1999-2003, and he taught at Cal State Long Beach in 2008-2009.

To entertain himself while procrastinating on commissions, John is a photography enthusiast.

For more information on John Mackey, visit his web site.