Gabriel Weber
Staff Writer
Thursday Morning Brass musicians aren’t afraid to toot their own horn for Chautauquans’ enjoyment.
The all-volunteer ensemble will close out their season with a one-hour concert at 4 p.m. today in Fletcher Music Hall. Music Director Aidan Chamberlain feels privileged to have access to Fletcher and the support of the production crew in bringing out chairs and refining the lighting.
Per usual, there will be an opportunity to donate at the door. Every year, Thursday Morning Brass gives a scholarship to a brass player in the School of Music.
One of the pieces they’re playing is “Austrian Processional” by Thursday Morning Brass member and trombonist Mark Lenz. Although he isn’t Austrian, Lenz created the piece for his sister’s wedding as she wanted a composition based on an Austrian hymn. Chamberlain has programmed specially arranged selections from West Side Story, “The Gospel Academy” by Ryan Linham — which has funk movements and a solo by French hornist Nancy Larsson — “St. Louis Blues” by W. C. Handy, “Festival Prelude” by Carl Nielsen and “Ol’ Man River” by Jerome Kern with a euphonium solo from Dan Sullivan.
While Chamberlain has the final say in the program, the musicians definitely have a hand in selections. Lenz said they don’t make suggestions — they make demands.
Lenz has played trombone since he was 12 in the school band and continued playing at the University of Nevada; when Lenz graduated, he went to the New England Conservatory and got a master’s degree in trombone performance. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do for a living, as it can take years to get an orchestra job, but he only had to wait two days to be recruited as the second trombone for the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
It just so happened that the former second trombone had taken over last-minute as the general manager of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. When an individual with Chautauqua Institution called CSO tuba player Toby Hanks, he contacted his New York Brass Quintet colleague — who was also Lenz’s teacher at the conservatory.
“So I walked in, and the other two players were very shocked because they were expecting somebody old with experience — and I was 23 years old,” Lenz said. “I had no experience.”
Lenz played with the Rochester Philharmonic Symphony as a trombonist for 13 years, switching from the CSO to the Rochester Philharmonic when Rochester picked up a summer season. Unfortunately, the switch was right as Lenz’s wife, Jenny, started playing as assistant principal viola at Chautauqua, and the two didn’t get to play in the orchestra together.
Lenz joined Thursday Morning Brass around 2016, and changed from trombone to euphonium when he developed the progressive neurological condition Parkinson’s. Sitting around a table with Chamberlain, who plays the trombone, and tuba player Jim Evans, Lenz pointed out the upside to the switch to euphonium.
“Unfortunately for Aidan, there are only two gentlemen at this table by definition,” Lenz said. “The definition of a gentleman is someone who knows how to play trombone and doesn’t — he still plays his.”
Evans considers his key talent singing and sings in the choir here at Chautauqua; in high school, he initially began with trombone but switched to tuba when he was 36 years old as his church group in Iowa needed one. Already knowing the valve placements since his grandfather had an old horn in the basement, Evans relied on that experience as he learned the instrument. When he moved to Pennsylvania, Evans formed a brass quintet that was a big part of his life for about 14 years, later moving to Chautauqua and joining Thursday Morning Brass in 2018.
“Emotionally, it would be a very unfulfilling life without music,” Evans said. “When things click, which is most of the time, there’s a very there’s just a huge satisfaction — I’m emotionally at ease.”
One of the challenges for the group is how difficult an hour-long concert of straight brass is on their chops, with no other instruments to shoulder the weight. Lenz remembers playing with an orchestra and the first note he had was at the end of the last movement of a two-hour piece.
“Playing orchestra was great, really fun,” Lenz said. “I stopped playing in orchestra and went to law school and practiced law for 20 years, and playing trombone is still more fun. Euphonium is still more fun.”
For Evans, Thursday Morning Brass has the perfect amount of practice and number of shows to maintain enthusiasm while keeping busy. However, he does find the last concert of the season to always be a downer.
“I’ve become an avocational musician; when I retired, this is what my focus was on, my music. I had a career that didn’t necessarily keep me from music, but it didn’t let me put enough time in my skills,” Evans said. “I certainly look forward to next year with this good group of people — you do miss it.”
Not only is playing music great for Lenz physically, as Parkinson’s affects breath control, and cognitively, since Lenz has to translate the trombone positions with euphonium fingerings, he also appreciates the connections.
“We always look forward to the next year and what new things we can do,” Lenz said. “Emotionally, I look back and the fact that I had the opportunity to play great and fun music with a great orchestra for years and years — it’s phenomenal. Not everybody gets to do what they love to do and with other people who are really, really good at it. In Thursday Morning Brass, we take it seriously enough to make it something we want to do over and over again, but it’s still fun.”
