The Colonial Brass Attracts Large Crowd at the South Shore Conservatory

The final performance of the 2010-2011 Conservatory Concert Series went out with a bang at the yesterday afternoon.

The United States Air Force Band of Liberty’s brass ensemble, The Colonial Brass, was in town to perform a free concert with music that ranged from a Spanish waltz to a patriotic "Stars and Stripes Forever."

From tubas and trumpets to euphoniums and xylophones, the six-member band played for about an hour in the Cox Hall.  The members of the US Air Force included Staff Sgt. Cheryl Przytula  and Staff Sgt. Quincy Garner on the trumpet, Technical Sgt. Lawrence Price on the French horn, Staff Sgt. Eric Spinelli on the euphonium, Airman First Class Adam Porter on the tuba and Staff Sgt. Michael Correa working his magic on the xylophone. 

The afternoon started off with "L’italiana in Alegri" by Gioacchino Rossini and moved on to a suite from “Lieutenant Kije” along with a piece by Dizzie Gillespie.

Of the six Colonial Brass musicians,  Porter is originally from the South Shore town of Plymouth and enlisted in the Air Force in 1993 as a Guardsman and joined the Band of Liberty in 2010. Porter finished his undergraduate and part of his graduate work in Tuba Performance at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

“Adam is also a former faculty member here at the conservatory so we invited the group to play here,” said Beth MacLeod Largent, director of performance, who is also an opera singer. “We typically have the room set up for preschool but today, it’s hosting the performance.”

The Colonial Brass band is set to record a CD at Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory in late May and CDs will be available by Christmas. With nearly 150 guests in attendance, Largent said she didn’t quite anticipate the enormous turnout that overflowed the room with a standing room only crowd.

This year, the South Shore Conservatory, which serves more than 2,000 students from nine months of age to 90 years, recently celebrated its 40th anniversary and is also the 15th largest conservatory in the United States. In the summer, beginning July 9, they will be hosting Saturday “Evenings under the Stars” concerts in the outdoor amphitheater.

The main campus is located at One Conservatory Drive, Hingham. For more information, call (781) 749-7565.