Empire Brass Celebration with Greg Zelek, organ

Internationally acclaimed trumpeter Marc Reese is best known for his near two-decade tenure in the Empire Brass Quintet.  As a member of the quintet, he toured the globe entertaining audiences and inspiring brass players with the quintet’s signature sound and virtuosity. 

Reese is highly regarded as an orchestral musician having performed on multiple occasions with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Symphony.  He has performed at many of the world’s great summer festivals including Tanglewood, Ravinia, Blossom, Marlboro and the Pacific Music Festival where he also served as a member of the faculty.  Reese has recorded for Telarc with the Empire Brass, on Sony with the Boston Pops and has been featured on the Naxos label with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

Reese is dedicated to the promotion of new music having commissioned many new works for the trumpet in various settings as well as participating in multiple premiere performances. He has created dozens of arrangements for both the trumpet and brass quintet and previously served on the board of the Florida State Music Teachers Association as its Composition Commissioning Chair. Reese is a current board member of the International Trumpet Guild.

Reese focuses a great deal of his time on education serving as Assistant Dean and Brass Department Head for Lynn University’s Conservatory of Music. He is in great demand as a master clinician and frequently performs and adjudicates at international brass conferences and competitions. He has contributed articles to multiple brass publications and is the contributing editor of the International Trumpet Guild Journal’s Chamber Connection.  Reese is the creator and Artistic Director of Lynn University’s Roger Voisin Memorial Trumpet Competition.  He spent this past summer on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp.  Reese has also written an iBook that utilizes Clarke’s Technical Studies to improve double tonguing entitled Repurposing Clarke. 

As a young artist Reese spent his summers at Tanglewood and attended Juilliard’s preparatory division where he studied with Mel Broiles and Mark Gould.  He received his BM from Boston University as a student of Roger Voisin and his MM from the New England Conservatory studying with Tim Morrison. Reese currently resides in south Florida with his wife, pianist Lisa Leonard, and their two boys Carter and Luke. 

Derek Lockhart enjoys a diverse musical career as a chamber musician, orchestral performer, commercial artist and educator. His performances have been heard on five continents including his appointment as Assistant Principal Trumpet with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also performed as Principal Trumpet with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Acting Principal Trumpet with the Sarasota Orchestra.

As a member of the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, Mr. Lockhart worked as an instructor and chamber music coach for the Empire Brass Quintet Seminar at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. This collaboration fostered a relationship leading to becoming a member of the Empire Brass in 2013.

An active freelance musician, Mr. Lockhart performs regularly with the Detroit Opera Orchestra, the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings.  Derek is a founding member of the Motor City Brass Quintet, whose award winning debut CD “Christmas Vespers” features the music of the Pulitzer Prize winning American composer John Harbison. Mr. Lockhart is a house musician for theaters throughout the state of Michigan, performing for touring Broadway shows. During the summer months, he performs with the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Sunflower Music Festival, and the Colorado Music Festival, where he collaborates with world class musicians and soloists, while enjoying hiking in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Gregory Miller, Director of the School of Music and Professor of Horn at the University of Maryland, has been a member of the faculty since 2000 and previously served as Associate Director for Academic Affairs and Director of Undergraduate Studies. Over the course of his career, Miller has established himself as an accomplished chamber musician, orchestral player, soloist and teacher. He was appointed hornist of the Empire Brass in 1997 and over the next fifteen years presented hundreds of concerts, masterclasses and clinics throughout the world. In addition to concertizing throughout the United States, Miller has performed in twenty-five countries spanning five continents at venues which have included Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Suntory Hall, the Barbican Center, the Mozarteum and the Musikverien to name but a few. Recorded on the Telarc label, Miller can be heard on EBQ’s Class Brass: Firedance and the Glory of Gabrieli.

His orchestral career began in 1991 as a fellow with the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas. He appeared on three NWS recordings on the Argo Decca label, one of which, Tangazo: Music of Latin America, received a Grammy nomination. In 1994, Miller was appointed Associate Principal Horn and Assistant Personnel Manager of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. He has regularly performed in the horn sections with the Detroit, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and National symphony orchestras as well as with the Miami City Ballet, Washington Ballet, Kennedy Center Opera, and Palm Beach Opera orchestras. In 2015, Miller performed as guest principal horn with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. The following year he served as guest principal horn for the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico on their European tour.

Gregory Miller has served on the faculties of the University of Hawaii, Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University. He is a Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Conservatory of Music at Lynn University, a position he has held since 1996. He has appeared as an international clinician with the Pacific Music Festival (Japan), the International Brass Festival (Australia), the Festival Internacional De Inverno De Campos Do Jordão (Brazil), the Festival de Musique de Saint-Barthélemy (French West Indies) and the Music Festival of Santiago de Queretaro (Mexico). Miller has also performed with the Colorado Music Festival, the Monadnock Music Festival and the Sunflower Music Festival. He currently serves on the faculties of the Miami Music Festival and the National Orchestral Institute. Mr. Miller is a Conn Selmer Artist and performs on the Conn French horn exclusively.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Miller received his BM in Horn Performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music where he studied with Robert Fries, former co-principal horn of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Other teachers have included Eric Ruske, William Slocum and Larry Miller. Gregory Miller is married to violinist Laura Hilgeman and together they have six children.

Born in Sarasota, Florida in 1968, Mark Hetzler began playing his father’s trombone at the age of twelve. He went on to receive a B.M. from Boston University and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music. Mark was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and completed a three-year fellowship with the New World Symphony, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.

As a member of the Empire Brass Quintet from 1996-2012, Mark performed in recital and as a soloist with symphony orchestras in Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Venezuela, Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Austria, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, Bermuda, St. Bartholomew and across the United States. He appeared with the group on live television and radio broadcasts in Asia and the United States, as well as Empire Brass recordings on the Telarc label.

Mark has released twelve solo recordings on the Summit Records label with programming that features music in a wide variety of genres. In addition to recording and performing, Mark is active as a composer, orchestrator and arranger, fusing classical styles with many non-classical influences. He has composed a trombone concerto (Three Views of Infinity), as well as numerous works in solo, chamber and large ensemble settings, including wind ensemble, orchestra, big band, brass quintet and jazz/rock combos.

In addition to his solo recordings, he has recently released three ensemble recordings. Don’t Look Down (2020), which he co-produced with UW-Madison colleagues Tom Curry and Anthony Di Sanza, features their collaborative concert-length original composition Don’t Look Down, exploring the impact of social media and technology on society. Mark can also be heard performing his own music on an electric trombone in the recordings of the adventurous new music group Mr. Chair. This versatile quartet released their debut recording Nebulebula in 2019, and followed it up with their second album Better Days in 2022.

Former Principal Trombone of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Mark has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops and the Florida Orchestra. He joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004, and is currently the Professor of Trombone at UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. Among his many duties as a faculty member in the School of Music, he teaches the Trombone Studio, coaches Chamber Music, co-directs the Low Brass Ensemble and performs as a member of the Wisconsin Brass Quintet (faculty ensemble-in-residence). Mark is a Getzen Performing Artist who plays the 4147-IB Custom Reserve tenor trombone. Learn more about Mark at his website: www.markhetzler.com

Kenneth Amis was born and raised in Bermuda. He began playing the piano at a young age and upon entering high school took up the tuba and developed an interest in performing and writing music. A Suite for Bass Tuba, composed when he was only fourteen, marked his first published work. A year later, at age sixteen, he enrolled in Boston University where he majored in composition. After graduating from Boston University he attended the New England Conservatory of Music where he received his Masters Degree in composition.

An active composer, Mr. Amis has been commissioned to write for the annual Cohen Wing opening at Symphony Hall in Boston, the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble, the University of Scranton, the College Band Directors National Association and a consortium of twenty universities and music organizations. He has also undertaken commissions and residencies with Carlisle Middle School (MA), Belmont High School (MA), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the New England Conservatory of Music and the Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors Association.

Audiences around the world have enjoyed Mr. Amis’s music through performances by such groups as the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Academy of Music Symphonic Winds, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the National Arts Center Orchestra of Ottawa.

As a tuba player, Mr. Amis has performed as a soloist with the English Chamber Orchestra and has been a member of the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra and the New World Symphony Orchestra. His performance skills are showcased on many commercial records distributed internationally. In 2003 Mr. Amis became the youngest recipient of New England Conservatory of Music’s “Outstanding Alumni Award.”

Mr. Amis has served on the faculties of Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan and in 2007 was Composer-in-residence at the South Shore Conservatory in Massachusetts. In 2017 Mr. Amis started producing a series of popular playing cards called Rep Decks™ to help classical instrumentalists, vocalist and music lovers become more familiar with classical music.

Mr. Amis is presently the principal tuba player of the the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, a performing artist for Besson instruments, the assistant conductor for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Wind Ensemble, wind ensemble director at Boston University, tuba professor at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Longy School of Music, New England Conservatory Preparatory Division and tuba professor and wind ensemble director at the Conservatory at Lynn University.

Born in Sauk City, Wisconsin, Dr. Matthew Endres is the teaching professor of drum set and jazz history at the University of Wisconsin, and is the UW Marching Band Percussion Coordinator. In addition, he adjudicates music festivals and competitions extensively throughout the United States. He received his bachelor of music degree in drum set at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, his master’s degree in jazz studies from the University of Illinois, and his doctoral degree in jazz studies and ethnomusicology at the University of Illinois.

Endres has performed extensively as a bandleader and a sideman in national and international venues. He is the drummer for the international award-winning group Old Style Sextet, which in 2014 placed second in the world-renowned Cotai Jazz and Blues Competition in Macau, China. He has appeared on multiple albums, including It’s About Time (2013) with the Adrian Barnett Septet; the Old Style Sextet self-titled album issued by Blujazz (2014); Chris Beyt’s 120 (2015); The Clark Gibson Studio Orchestra’s record, Bird with Strings: The Lost Arrangements, issued by Blujazz (2015); The Chris Beyt Trio’s, A Trio For Three, issued by Ears&Eyes Records (2020); The University of Illinois Concert Jazz Band’s record, The Music of Pepper Adams (2020); and Places with the group, Gate Check. Endres also currently holds an endorsement with Bopworks Drumsticks, based in Austin, Texas.

Endres has worked with talented artists, including, Grammy-award winner, Doc Severinson, Brad Leali, Chris Brubeck, Charles McPherson, Jim Masters, Sharel Cassity, Marquis Hill, Robert Irving III, Frank Gambale, Tom Garling, Víctor García, Michael Blum, Shawn Purcell, Darden Purcell, Oliver Nelson Jr, Jim Pugh, Dave Pietro, Grammy-award winner, Charles “Chip” McNeill, Ron Bridgewater, Dave D’Angelo, Carlos Vega, Larry Gray, Jeff Halsey, Glenn Wilson, Richard Drexler, Mark Colby, Alex Graham, Clark Gibson, Tito Carrillo, John “Chip” Stephens, Joan Hickey, and Adrian Barnett.