Rose City Brass Quintet

Exemplary  ·  Expansive  ·  Exhilarating

The Rose City Brass Quintet (RCBQ) is the Pacific Northwest's premier modern brass quintet, offering vibrantly virtuosic performances while pioneering expansive programming and business models that revitalize the concert music landscape. The group's abundance of talent combined with a meticulous, exacting rehearsal style results in clear, cohesive, and powerful playing that is both exhilarating and satisfying. Dedicated scholars and educators as well as performers, RCBQ members revive and recontextualize gems of the historical brass quintet repertoire while regularly commissioning new music from an inclusive cross-section of leading composers to invigorate, diversify, and modernize the medium. Committed to sharing this new body of work, RCBQ founded its own publishing company, Rose City Brass Publishing, which broadens access to the music and offers future generations an entrepreneurial model for building infrastructure that strengthens our evolving musical ecosystem.

The Rose City Brass Quintet features Logan Brown and Joseph Klause on trumpets, Daniel Partridge on horn, and Lars Campbell on trombone, all "kickass… local masters… anchored by tuba god JáTtik Clark… [who] manages to produce an unforgettable sound" (Portland Mercury). World-class chamber artists who also perform in the region's top orchestras, teach at colleges and universities, and build instruments by hand, these five musicians unite in their love of the sweeping, majestic sonic possibilities of high-quality brass quintet literature. Their thoughtfully crafted programs often spotlight music of the Pacific Northwest contextualized within a dynamic, international mix of styles, with a particular focus on the music of women, people of color, and other historically underrepresented composers.

Recent and upcoming engagements include an appearance with Third Angle New Music and performances at The Old Church Concert Hall, Oregon Center for Contemporary Art, Nordia House, Oregon Contemporary, and a series of outdoor concerts funded by Multnomah and Clackamas counties. Admired for their engaging, forward-thinking work with students, the ensemble has offered concerts and workshops at Linfield University, Portland State University, Mt. Hood Community College, and Oregon State University. Individually, members hold teaching positions at Portland State University, Oregon State University, Lewis & Clark College, Reed College, University of Portland, Clark College, Linfield University, Clackamas Community College, Lane Community College, and Mt. Hood Community College.

RCBQ's discography begins with Disquiet (2022), funded by a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC), which responds to the Covid-19 pandemic and the simultaneous national reckoning with racial injustice by positioning four bold new works alongside never-before-recorded brass quintet literature. The quintet's second full-length album, Pan-American Expressions, spans the Americas from the tango halls of Buenos Aires to the Broadway lights of New York, pairing Piazzolla, Bernstein, and Villa-Lobos with contemporary works by Tania León and Paquito D'Rivera, joined by guest artists Sergio Carreño (cajón) and mezzo-soprano Sarah Beaty. The group's ongoing live EP series captures complete performances of rarely recorded repertoire, including a quintet by Danish Romantic Axel Jørgensen and Oskar Böhme's Trumpet Sextet, with cornet soloist Sarah Viens, recorded at Beall Hall in Eugene. A recording of Tomi Räisänen's Ludi Caeli is forthcoming.

Bio by Aligned Artistry