Mnozil Brass

As a music student, I have to attend a certain number of concerts per school year. The requirement has changed since my freshman year (to fewer, thank goodness), but it can still be challenging to fit it all in. Two of the concerts we have to attend are called Artist Concert Series concerts, which is basically where the School of Music (now the School of Music and the Arts... more another time) gets professional, usually very good, musicians to come to APU and give a free concert. There was one at the end of September/beginning of October featuring Dennis Azabagic, who is an amazing guitarist who has won twenty-four prizes in international competitions, eleven of which were first place. So, as you can see, the SoM does a good job getting really good musicians for us.

Tonight was no exception. The Austrian brass septet Mnozil Brass came and gave an invite-only performance. Literally. You had to be on the list to even get into the performance hall. It's the first time that I know of that the SoM has actually had to have a list of people who are allowed into a concert. People from around the US who are fans of Mnozil Brass somehow found out about the concert here, and were calling APU about getting tickets and flying to LA just for the concert. No joke. So the SoM had to limit who could attend. If you weren't on the list, you didn't get in.

Normally I have class on Wednesday nights, but we were able to convince our professor to cancel class. It wasn't hard at all. He was glad to be able to go home three hours earlier than he expected.

I'm not going to go into detail about Mnozil Brass (pronounced like "nozzle") because it's late and I want to go to bed. Let me just say this: they are amazing. If you ever have a chance to see them live, GO. Don't miss it. They should be on your concert bucket list, even if you aren't really the kind of person to enjoy brass music.

I took some photos that don't really do much justice because: 1) they are photos not videos, and 2) I had to use my phone, which doesn't have an amazing camera.

So, this is the best photo I have of the whole group. I realized when I got home that I didn't get one of them all lined up...

While he (the one in the center above) was playing, four of the guys came over, picked him up, and then proceeded to play as well. So he was playing while lying flat, which is amazing:

And the rest of the guys were still playing as well.

Later... I saw a video of this on YouTube, and was really hoping they would do it. They did :)

Basically, the same guy sat in a chair, and then proceeded to play four instruments at once:

And then his chair gets taken away.

Hopefully that has sparked your interest. There is a link to the video on YouTube at the bottom :) Go watch it, it will make your day.

Last thing: They did brass arrangements for pop songs. This is clearly Michael Jackson's "Thriller." They also did a tribute to Queen, and some other pop songs. It was hilarious. And amazing. And totally worth money to see again.

They have been described as a mix between brass and Monte Python, which is exactly right.

As promised, here is the video. Enjoy!

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Grace and Peace,
Suz :)