InConcert Sierra presents “Splendor in the Brass” on February 12

Experience “Splendor in the Brass” Feb. 12 during a special House Concert and seminar presented by InConcert Sierra. The performance will feature Bay Area trumpeter, Scott Macomber, and Nevada County pianist Nancy McRay.

Macomber and McRay have been collaborating musically for almost 30 years. For the Feb. 12 concert they are programming works from the Baroque period on through modern times, choosing pieces both arranged for and also specifically composed for the trumpet.

Besides the standard Bb trumpet, Macomber will get down to brass tactics playing on several other types of horns, such as the cornet, the flugelhorn, and the piccolo trumpet. Explaining and demonstrating the structural and tonal differences will help audience members understand why certain instruments work better for the different styles of music written for trumpet. There will be an emphasis on the singing quality of trumpet tone, sometimes “borrowing” from vocal literature.

Macomber is in demand as an orchestral trumpeter, chamber musician, soloist, and educator. He frequently appears onstage and in the pit with the San Francisco Symphony, Opera and Ballet orchestras. During the 2009-10 season he served as acting third trumpet with the SF Symphony. 

Macomber serves in permanent positions with the California Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony and Sacramento Philharmonic. In addition to CSUEB Macomber serves on the artist faculty of UC Davis and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory and Extension Division, according to his biography.

For 40-some years, McRay lived in the Chicago area where she had a busy musical career teaching and performing (then Nancy Macomber). She became seriously motivated to learn the piano parts for trumpet music when she realized that she had given birth to a trumpeter (she’s Macomber’s mom).

This led her to playing for brass master classes, recitals and competitions at places such as Northwestern University and DePaul University. Local audiences might have heard her in the pit for seven recent Sierra Stages productions. Currently, she is the accompanist for the Sierra Master Chorale and the Music in the Mountains Chorus.

Tickets to the private house concert are $40 and available by phone at 530-273-3990, in person at BriarPatch Co-op or online at www.inconcertsierra.org (ticketing fees may apply).

—By InConcert Sierra

(Photo of Scott Macomber by UC Davis Department of Music)