3 pm - Gaudete Brass Quintet + Timothy Berlew, organ

Fine Arts at First
presents

The Gaudete Brass Quintet
Timothy Berlew, organ

Sunday, February 17th  3:00 PM
First United Methodist Church
 919 60th St, on the corner of 60th St. , Kenosha

free-will offering

The organ is a partially-refurbished 1929 Aeolian.

In addition to several works for the brass alone, they will also be
performing two works for brass and organ: Confitemini Domino (1997) by Carlyle Sharpe and the Poéme Héroïque a Verdun, Op. 33 (1935) by Marcel Dupré. Timothy Berlew will also be performing the Concert Piece, Op. 52a by Flor Peeters.

Timothy Berlew began the study of piano at age five and organ at eleven.  He took his first job as an organist at the age of thirteen.  Beginning the summer before his junior year of high school he studied organ with Arden Whitacre (a student of Flor Peeters) at the University of Miami.  He earneda bachelor of music degree with a double major in music education and organ performance as well as a master of music degree in choral conducting from the University of Miami.  He completed a doctor of musical arts degree at the University of Michigan.  He has served as organist and music director at churches in Florida, Michigan and North Carolina.  He has concertized throughout the United States.  In 1989 Berlew took part in the Flor PeetersMasterclass at St. Rombout’s Cathedral in Mechelen, Belgium and took second prize in the Flor Peeters International Organ Competition.  In 1992, he was a semi-finalist in the prestigious Grand Prix de Chartres.  In the early2000’s he answered the call to pastoral ministry and has served as pastor of
Marrow’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Henderson, North Carolina, Memorial United Methodist Church in Greenfield, Wisconsin and has served as pastor of First United Methodist Church in Kenosha since 2011.

Since 2004, the Gaudete Brass Quintet has committed itself to presenting serious brass chamber music through compelling concerts, commissioning new works and adventurous recordings.  The group has engaged in live performances at venues such as Merkin Hall and Symphony Space in New York City and Millennium Park in Chicago, commissioned new works from noted composers such as David Sampson, Rob Deemer, John Cheetham and Stacy Garrop, and appeared on radio broadcasts on WFMT in Chicago and Nashville Public Radio.  While keeping this rigorous performance schedule, the Quintet has recorded three albums: Brass Outings (2006), winner of the CDBaby Editors’ Choice distinction and nominee for Just Plain Folks Best Classical Chamber
Album; Conversations in Time with organist R. Benjamin Dobey (2011, Pro Organa); and Chicago Moves, produced by Grammy winner Judith Sherman and featuring several of its commissioned works (forthcoming 2012, Cedille Records).  In addition to having served as Artists-in-Residence at Carthage College (Kenosha, WI) and presenting composition workshops to young artists at Columbia College and Roosevelt University in Chicago, the quintet has also presented educational programs and concerts at prominent institutions including The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, and Vanderbilt University.