About Brass Rings

Brass Rings is five musicians of wide experience who create an involving encounter for their audiences by incorporating theatre, movement and spoken word into their concept-driven shows.

The quintet, with organist William O'Meara, performed its first concert as part of its 1998 Time For Christmas tour. Audiences were unanimous in their praise for the quintet's compelling musical performance and its illuminating presentation. That first tour ended with excerpts from Time For Christmas being heard on CBC Radio Two in a special Christmas day program.

In 1999 Brass Rings was delighted to perform at the Ontario Arts Council's trade exhibition, CONTACT '99. From this performance grew an extensive tour in 2000 that brought the experience of Time For Christmas to audiences in seventeen Ontario cities and towns from the province's north west to its far east and into Pennsylvania (we travelled about 6500 km!). Time For Christmas 2000 TOUR

The quintet’s first US engagement was on New Year's Eve 2000 as part of the annual First Night Festival presented by The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts™ in State College SEE REVIEW. Brass Rings was to perform again in Pennsylvania in mid-September 2001, this time a showcase version of Time For Christmas, at the trade exhibition NEPAC-2001 in Pittsburgh. The horror of September 11 caused the trade show to be cancelled but the selection has still been helpful and interest in the group is growing in the US.

The quintet was selected to perform on a select showcase line-up at Pacific Contact in Vancouver in April 2003. The result of this venture was a handful of performances in BC and Washington state in the late fall of 2004 and these dates combined with several in southern Ontario and New York state to make a busy tour. SEE TOUR SCHEDULE

Brass Rings showcased again at Ontario Contact in 2003, this time featuring On Wings of Song ... My Spirit Soars. Four days later they left for Maine to begin an intense week of performances of this show for the Arcady Music Festival SEE TOUR SCHEDULE. The focus of The Maine Event was the school performances but the full evening version of the show got a wonderful response too.

Pleasantly incidental to the trip were two surprises-

One was meeting Stephen King - well, we didn't really meet him - it was more like this:
- some of us had been driven by his house, in the dark, by our hosts the night before and were in turn showing our colleaugues where he lived. As usual, there was confusion in the van with several people talking (" Which one is it ", " When's breakfast? ", etc) and nobody listening. Someone said " It's the one that the burgundy van just stopped in front of ". We pulled up opposite the burgundy van and saw Stephen King beside it opening the big door for some kids, likely his own, to get in. No doubt to escape the crazy, brass-playing Canucks.

The other wonderful surprise came when Thomas and Ross discovered they were enjoying their (complimentary) post-concert lobster beside the man who invented the aluminum can pull tab in current use (you know, like on BEER cans - the version that really works). He worked 30 years at ALCOA and has his name on several patents. We should have his picture on here.

Immediately upon returning from Maine, we began to prepare for the 2003 Time For Christmas tour. A sign of some career progress was having 4 engagements at theatres in Southern Ontario belonging to the CCI network. SEE TOUR SCHEDULE

Some other notes:

- A version of Time For Christmas which incorporates choir premiered very successfully in 2002 SEE TOUR SCHEDULE and already we are receiving inquiries about its availability.

- In On Wings of Song ... My Spirit Soars , the quintet illuminates the emotions that compel us to Sing. Along the way we realize that our Songs sometimes flow out of us as Dance and that our world is a better place when we do more of both.

- In Bach's Lunch Box, Brass Rings and organist Jan Overduin sample J.S. Bach’s Art of Fugue as well as nourishing works from the pan of Bach-connected or Bach-influenced composers like EisenBach, OffenBach, P.D.Q. Bach, Pachelbel and Vivaldi.

- The group’s first recording is a CD of the Time For Christmas repertoire and was released 2000 November 16 to enthusiastic response and critical acclaim.