The Brentwood Brass

The Brentwood Brass quintet is a Cape Cod based ensemble of professional musicians and academics who are dedicated to exploring the multifaceted literature of the brass quintet world and presenting this music to audiences in Southeastern Massachusetts. The musicians strive for the highest level of musical performance and present concerts, recitals, music for weddings, church services and for ceremonies and special occasions throughout the area and occasionally beyond. The group plays transcriptions and original compositions of music ranging from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries and from popular to classical genres.

Babette F. Bach, Organist

Babette F. Bach is the Director of Music and Organist for West Parish of Barnstable. She is a graduate of Brown University with a degree in music with piano and organ as her instrument. While at Brown, she studied organ with William Dinneen and she currently studies with concert organist, Dr. James Jordan. She has participated in masterclasses with Ken Cowan, Dr. James David Christie and Heinrich Christensen. She has previously served as an accompanist for Falmouth Chorale and Cape Cod Chorale. Mrs. Bach has 30 years experience as a music educator having worked as an elementary and classroom teacher as well as music teacher within the public school systems of (Providence) Rhode Island, (Westport and Saugatuck) Connecticut and Pennsylvania. In the same amount of time, she has worked as a church musician in other congregational churches and continues her ministry of music here at West Parish. In 2003, she served as Assistant Coordinator for the Region I Convention of the American Guild of Organists held on Cape Cod. Mrs. Bach is a past Dean of the Cape Cod and the Islands Chapter of the American Guild of Organists as well as being a member of the United Church of Christ Musicians Association and the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers.

The Brentwood Consort is a group of professional musicians brought together by their love of baroque chamber music and dedicated to sharing their enthusiasm with audiences is eastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod. They specialize in instrumental music written between 1600 and 1750 and perform on replicas of period instruments.

John Clark - oboe -Guest Artist John played violin and oboe in his school years in England but has always been interested in small ensembles. He has played in the Cape Symphony for ten years. His interest in early music is revealed by his hobby of restoring harpsichords and clavichords. John holds the Ph.D. in medieval literature from the University of Wisconsin and is an associate of the Royal College of Music in London. He runs Inquiring Mind, a school for the study of literature in Eastham, and is also a certified professional life coach.

Lore Loftfield DeBower - harpsichord Lore holds the Ph.D. from the Five College Cooperative in Amherst and is Interim Dean of Arts and Sciences at Cape Cod Community College. She is very active in international education and is currently an academic division Associate Dean pro tem at the College. She is an active organist and harpsichordist.

Molly Johnston - viola da gamba Molly is a graduate of Wellesley and Yale and has headed the Collegium Musicum at Duke. She has performed in the Utah Shakespeare Festival, directed Quidam Musici and held posts at North Carolina University, the Viola da Gamba Conclave and at Pinewoods Early Music Camp. She is an active sailor and pilot.

Robert W. Kidd - recorder Bob holds the Mus. A. D. from Boston University and is a former department chair and professor emeritus from Cape Cod Community College. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda. An active trumpeter and choral and instrumental conductor, he is a member of the Brentwood Brass, the Original "Dissonance" Jazz Band and several other ensembles in the area.

Keith Underwood, master flutist and teacher, is known worldwide not only for his artistry as a flutist, but also for his extraordinary teaching techniques.

Underwood has appeared extensively in solo recitals, concerto performances and master-classes internationally. A resident of New York City, Underwood has performed with New York's most prominent musical organizations including the New York Philharmonic, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Orpheus Ensemble, the American Composer's Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the Brooklyn Philharmonia. He is solo flutist with Parnassus and Musical Elements, Jazz Antiqua, Arcadia Baroque Ensemble, Ufonia, and the Riverside Symphony. Underwood has recorded with such diverse artists as Benjamin Verdery, Celine Dion, Kathleen Battle, Rod Stewart, Bobby McFerrin and Anthony Newman. In addition, he devotes much of his time recording for motion pictures and television.

As a teacher, Underwood's extraordinary breathing and embouchure techniques are known, discussed and accepted worldwide. He has worked with flutists and other instrumentalists from orchestras around the globe. His current U.S. roster includes orchestra members from Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Tennessee. His foreign roster includes musicians from Canada, Brazil, Italy, Japan and Mexico.

Currently, Underwood is on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, New York University and the Mannes College of Music. As a master-class teacher, he is affiliated with the Julliard School, Manhattan School of Music and the Eastman School of Music. He also travels annually to Japan, Mexico, Italy and Brazil to perform and conduct master-classes.

Gael Alcock, cellist and Jane Donnelly, pianist, met at Bennington College where they studied music performance and composition, and collaborated on many concerts. While raising families and pursuing careers on separate coasts, they hoped to reunite as a duo when their children grew up, which happened in short order. “Pulcinella Duo” has recently reemerged to the acclaim of audiences in Baltimore and Barnstable.

This summer’s program will include sonatas by Schubert, Shostakovich, and Beethoven, as well as an original work composed for the occasion.

Jane Donnelly, who received her BA in music from Bennington College, and MM in Piano Performance from Peabody Conservatory , has been performing for thirty years throughout the East Coast. She currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Miss Donnelly accompanies at the Carver Center for the Arts, teaches piano at the Friends School, serves as the Music Director at Mays Chapel United Methodist Church, and is the accompanist for the women’s choir, The Canticle Singers.

Gael Alcock studied cello with George Finckel, Jules Eskin, Michael Grebanier, Nicolau Hohloff, and Colin Hampton. Her improvisations and compositions have been heard on radio, television, and in San Francisco Bay Area venues such as the Palace of Fine Arts, the Berkeley and Oakland Art Museums, Vorpal Gallery, and the Exploratorium. She has been a member of the San Francisco Chamber Players, Berkeley and San Jose Symphonies and Cinnabar Opera, and has founded many performing groups including The Concerto Collective, Schumann Piano Trio, Sorelli String Trio, Allemande, Redwood, and Agua String Quartets,and Sweet Western Dalliance. She teaches strings at Joaquin Miller Elementary and Martin Luther King Middle Schools, and directs Celloposse,a cello choir of adult students.

Music and Musings "At the Meetinghouse" is a concert and lecture series established and operated by the West Parish Memorial Foundation. This concert and lecture series was organized to help benefit the new pipe organ as well as provide programs of interest to the Barnstable community and to help foster an interest in the arts throughout the Cape and Islands. The Foundation also sponsors an organ recital series: The West Parish Organ Recital Series.

updated 1/13/10 @ 10:30 p.m.