The River City Brass Band is a modified British-style brass band based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The band performed its first concert on November 21, 1981, with its founder Robert Bernat as conductor. In addition to its accessible performance style, RCBB is renowned for its recordings and original compositions. Part of its mission is to propagate and promote the brass band through recordings and commissioning new works and arrangements. To date, RCBB has released fifteen recordings that are distributed nationally and internationally. The band annually performs nearly sixty concerts in the Pittsburgh area. RCBB differs from most brass bands in that the instrumentation has been altered. French Horns are used instead of alto horns, and a Eb soprano trumpet is employed in place of a soprano cornet. The result of the soprano trumpet is a lighter, brighter, more "orchestral" sound than the traditional brass band.
On April 29, 2010 the band appointed a new conductor to replace retired conductor Denis Colwell after a series of concerts with guest conductors "auditioning" for the spot. James Gourlay of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, was selected, and will be leaving Scotland in August.
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Famous quotes containing the words river, city, brass and/or band:
“I journeyed to London, to the timekept City,
Where the River flows, with foreign flotations.
There I was told: we have too many churches,
And too few chop-houses.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“What is the city over the mountains
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
Falling towers
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“You could almost see the brass on her gleaming,
Not quite. The mist was to light what red
Is to fire. And her mainmast tapered to nothing,
Without teetering a millimeter’s measure.
The beads on her rails seemed to grasp at transparence.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Nothing makes a man feel older than to hear a band coming up the street and not to have the impulse to rush downstairs and out on to the sidewalk.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)