The National Brass Ensemble is comprised of the finest brass players in major orchestras across the United States. There are twenty-six members most of whom currently hold principal positions in the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Repertoire includes excerpts from Giovanni Gabrieli's innovative Sacrae symphoniae (1597), arranged for this ensemble by San Francisco Symphony trombonist Tim Higgins, and the debut of Music for Brass, a new work by celebrated film composer John Williams.
Generously supported by Oberlin alumnus Dr. Joseph Markoff and his wife Phyllis, the recording has been inspired by an historic, Grammy Award-winning recording, The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli, featuring the legendary brass ensembles of the Chicago Symphony and the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. It has been long admired as the definitive modern performance of Giovanni Gabrieli's works.