ISO top brass to share Thompson stage

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Audience members will leave Tuesday's recital of 20th-century brass music with a head full of hummable tunes when DePauw University faculty member Robert Danforth, principal horn of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, is joined by colleague Anthony Kniffen, the ISO's principal tuba, for a varied program of brass music of classical composers Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams, Hollywood film composer Bruce Broughton, and popular song composer Alec Wilder, among others.

Their concert, "Melodic 20th-Century Music for Brass," will presented at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 29 in Thompson Recital Hall, located within DePauw's Green Center for the Performing Arts

Although Kniffen, principal tuba of the ISO since 1997, has performed with many of the major American orchestras, including Chicago, St. Louis, Minnesota, Cincinnati and Detroit, appearing as a soloist with several, he may be best known to aspiring tuba players as the "play-along" tubist on Hal Leonard's interactive educational project "Essential Elements 2000."

Kniffen has toured the U.S. with Summit Brass and also served as sabbatical replacement for his friend and mentor, Dan Perantoni, at his alma mater Indiana University.

A School of Music faculty member since 1991, Danforth has performed with the symphony orchestras of Grand Rapids, Toledo, Omaha, Detroit and Cincinnati, in addition to serving as principal horn of the ISO.

He has also been a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and was selected as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. Danforth is a graduate of University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music.

General admission tickets to Tuesday's Faculty Select recital are $5. Tickets for seniors, children and all students are free.

For more information and online purchases, visit www.depauw.edu/music/tickets. A new automatic ticket kiosk on the first floor of the Green Center is now available for making walk-up ticket purchases at any time of day using a credit or debit card. The venue's box office will also be open beginning an hour prior to the performance.

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