The Empire Brass enjoys an international reputation as North America's finest brass ensemble, renowned for its brilliant virtuosity and the unparalleled diversity of its repertoire. The five musicians—all of whom have held leading positions with major American orchestras—perform more than 100 concerts a year, in cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington, London, Zurich and Tokyo. With their best-selling recordings on the Telarc label, they have introduced an even larger worldwide audience to the excitement of brass music ranging from Bach and Handel to jazz and Broadway. They are equally at home in the majestically antiphonal works that Gabrieli composed for St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice and the exuberantly show-stopping tunes that Richard Rodgers and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote for Broadway.

In addition to playing across the United States, the Empire Brass has toured the Far East sixteen times, and performs regularly in Europe. It has played to standing-room crowds in the former Soviet Union, where their concert was broadcast on television. The ensemble has performed with major symphony orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony and Zurich's Tonhalle Orchester. It regularly visits leading summer festivals including Ravinia, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Saratoga and Chautauqua. In addition to its many appearances in the United States, the Empire Brass recently performed to sold-out audiences in Kuala Lumpur. The Empire Brass made their debut tour of China during the 1999-2000 season.

Recent engagements include performances at Carnegie Hall, New York’s Central Park, the Ventura Chamber Music Festival, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, with the San Francisco Symphony, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and their seventeenth recital tour of the Far East. Highlights of the 2002-2003 season include performances with the Hartford Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Waco Symphony and at Interlochen.

The Empire Brass has been awarded the Naumburg Prize and the Harvard Music Association Award. It is a frequent guest on nationally syndicated radio programs including Saint Paul Sunday Morning, Traditions, and NPR Performance Today, and has been televised on Good Morning America, the Today Show, Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, and in 1999, a special Holiday concert for NHK Japan. Among its many honors, Empire Brass became the first ensemble to play at the newly remodeled Carnegie Hall and opened the Carnegie Hall Centennial Gala, joining forces with members of the New York Philharmonic in the world premiere of Joan Tower's specially commissioned Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman.

ROLF SMEDVIG is one of the world's great trumpeters, a dazzling virtuoso acknowledged as a soloist and chamber musician of international renown. He has played as soloist with many orchestras, among them the Boston Symphony, National Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and the New Japan Philharmonic, performing there under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. He has made guest appearances with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, National Symphony of Mexico, the Sydney Symphony performing the Berio Sequenza for the Australian Broadcasting Company, and is a frequent guest at such festivals as Tanglewood, Wolf Trap, Chautauqua, the Pacific Music Festival, Marlboro Bach Festival, and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.

Mr. Smedvig's CD of virtuoso trumpet concertos with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the first release under an exclusive contract with Telarc Records, earned a Grammy nomination. Mr. Smedvig has also toured North America as soloist with the orchestra. The American Record Guide praised the CD as containing "absolutely gorgeous playing."

Mr. Smedvig was born in Seattle and made his debut as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony when he was thirteen. He attended college at Boston University and studied the trumpet with such teachers as Armando Ghitalla, Raphael Mendez, and Maurice Andre. While studying at Tanglewood in 1971, he was invited by Leonard Bernstein to play solo trumpet in the world premiere of the composer's Mass that marked the opening of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Mr. Smedvig served the Boston Symphony and the Tanglewood Music Center for ten years. Appointed by Seiji Ozawa, he became the youngest member of that orchestra and after becoming Principal trumpet, left to pursue a career as soloist and conductor.

Mr. Smedvig made his conducting debut in the Tanglewood Music Shed and as Music Director of the Cambridge Chamber Orchestra; he has recorded several CDs and a DVD with the Cambridge Chamber Orchestra. Other recent engagements include the New World Symphony Brass and the Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert in 1996 and 1999 at the Pacific Music Festival, Sapporo Japan. He has been a guest conductor of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela, was responsible for a tour of the U.S., including a visit to Tanglewood and a CBS televised broadcast of their concert at Boston's Government Center.

Mr. Smedvig is committed to music education. He currently serves as a clinician for the Selmer Company and has given master classes at the Curtis Institute, Moscow Conservatory, London’s Royal Academy, Toho School of Japan, Stanford, and Harvard University. He is featured on the Warner Bros. Twenty-first century Band Method video. His faculty positions have included Boston University, the Tanglewood Music Center, and he founded and directed the Empire Brass Seminar at Tanglewood.

The Boston Ballet presented the World premiere of the ballet Passage with music written, arranged and adapted by Rolf Smedvig. The Telarc CD Passage was co-produced by Mr. Smedvig. He is an accomplished ASCAP arranger-composer with hundreds of works published by KRS, G. Schirmer, and International Music.

Internationally acclaimed trumpeter, MARC REESE, joined the Empire Brass in 1996. Mr. Reese maintains a busy schedule as chamber musician, soloist and master clinician, touring extensively throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East. He continues to receive critical acclaim for his work including recent performances of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and a solo recital at Washington D.C.’s National Cathedral.

In addition to recording for Telarc with the Empire Brass, Mr. Reese has recorded for Sony with the Boston Pops and has been featured on the Naxos label with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. He has appeared on the nationally televised Good Morning America and Evening at Pops as well as on NHK television in Japan. A frequent performer and teacher at festivals throughout the world he has most recently appeared at Marlboro, Tanglewood and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan.

Mr. Reese began his early training at the Juilliard School and Tanglewood Institute. He went on to receive his B.M. and M.M. degrees from Boston University and the New England Conservatory, respectively. While living in Boston, he often performed with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras. His former teachers include Roger Voisin, Timothy Morrison, Mark Gould and Melvyn Broiles.

Mr. Reese currently resides in Boca Raton, Florida where he is on the Artist Faculty of the Conservatory of Music at Lynn University.

MICHELLE PERRY began her musical studies on piano at the age of six, and presented her first solo recital at the age of seven. A native of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Ms. Perry has traveled extensively, presenting hundreds of concerts across the United States, South-East Asia, Europe, South America, and the Far East.

A Yamaha Young Performing Artist, she has been a guest artist at the Bands of America National Convention, sponsored by Yamaha Corporation, the 1998 and 2000 OK Mozart International Festivals, and has presented solo performances around the United States and abroad.

Ms. Perry’s orchestral engagements include performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Milwaukee Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, New World Symphony, the Malaysian Philharmonic, Oslo Radio Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, and in Carnegie Hall under the direction of Pierre Boulez. As a member of the Southwest Brass Quintet, she served as an artist-in-residence in several public schools, presenting many public concerts and educational outreach programs.

Ms. Perry has appeared at numerous conventions and festivals, including Music Academy of the West, international and regional horn workshops, international brass festivals, Music Educator’s National Conventions, Aspen Music Festival, and Tanglewood Music Festival, where she performed as solo horn in Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 under the direction of James Conlon in Seiji Ozawa Hall. The winner of numerous solo competitions and awards, she has also been involved in several group commissions and world premieres of new works. A J. William Fulbright Scholar and alumnus of Arizona State University, her principal teachers include Frøydis Ree Wekre, Thomas Bacon, and Bruce Heim.

A winner in the Houston Symphony’s prestigious 2000 Ima Hogg International Solo Competition, she was a member of the New World Symphony, playing Principal Horn under the direction of Michael Tilson-Thomas, and recently served as Principal Horn of the Malaysian Philharmonic in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Ms. Perry currently freelances in the Boston area, with her most recent engagements including performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops, and an appearance as a guest soloist at the 2002 Oklahoma Music Educator’s Convention. Ms. Perry can be heard on Summit Records and RCA Victor.

Born in Sarasota, Florida in 1968, MARK HETZLER began playing the trombone at the age of twelve. He received a B.M. from Boston University and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music. Mr. Hetzler was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and worked under Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle and Marek Janowski. He also 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, Mr. Hetzler has performed in recital and as a soloist with symphony orchestras in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany, Italy, Austria, Malaysia, Singapore and across the United States. Mr. Hetzler appears on Empire Brass’ latest CD Firedance.

Former Principal trombone of the Florida West Coast Symphony, Mr. Hetzler has performed with the Boston Pops, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Florida Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he made a recording in 1992 of the music of Sibelius with Vladimir Ashkenazy. He has also performed under Luciano Berio, Eduarto Mata, Gunther Schuller, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Leonard Slatkin. Mr. Hetzler is a talented arranger, with a number of chamber pieces scored for trombone quartet and brass quintet. One of his arrangements was recorded on the CD Four of a Kind, featuring Mark Lawrence of the San Francisco Symphony and Joseph Alessi of the New York Philharmonic. Mr. Hetzler is featured on Animal Act, a CD of music by Boston composer Evan Ziporyn. He has performed as a concerto soloist with the New England Conservatory Orchestra and the International Trombone Festival Orchestra. Mr. Hetzler performs solo recitals and master classes throughout the world, and recently appeared as an artist and teacher at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Mark has just recorded two exciting new CDs on the Summit Label. Serious Songs, Sad Faces features Mark’s own arrangements of songs on the topic of sorrow, loss and consolation, while American Voices features all American composers in a variety of arrangements and original compositions for trombone. Mr. Hetzler is currently teaching as Artist Faculty at The Conservatory of Music at Lynn University and at Florida International University.

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 fifteen, 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 where he earned a Masters Degree in composition. Mr. Amis has been commissioned to write for the annual Cohen Wing opening at Symphony Hall in Boston, the Massachusetts Instrumental Conductors Association, Carlisle Middle School, the Belmont High School Band, the Gardener High School Band, the University of Scranton, the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble and the College Band Directors National Association.

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. He has served on the faculties of Lynn University, Boston University, Boston University Tanglewood Institute and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. Mr. Amis is presently the tuba player of the Empire Brass, a Performing Artist for Besson tubas, a composer for Boosey & Hawkes Publishing and holds the International Brass Chair at the Royal Academy of Music in London.