Unique Experiences

Item Description

A great package for brass enthusiasts! Attend a rehearsal of the Montclair Citadel Brass Band as the ensemble prepares for its upcoming tour of Great Britain, and meet with ensemble director and NJSO principal trombone Charles Baker.

This package includes admission for two to a rehearsal, an opportunity to meet with Charlie and a CD of the Citadels’ most recent recording, The Holly & The Ivy, an exciting collection of concert Christmas music featuring Jazz trombonist Jim Pugh.

To be scheduled for a mutually agreeable Wednesday evening during the 2012–13 concert season.

Patterned after British brass bands rather than American concert bands, the sound of the all-brass Montclair Citadel is symphonic. Acknowledged as one of The Salvation Army's finest brass bands, the group has performed with luminaries including Wynton Marsalis, the Canadian Brass and Philip Smith, principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic. It has delighted audiences in Canada, Bermuda, England and throughout the United States in such concert venues as Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall in New York City, London's Royal Albert Hall and Victoria Theater at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Several years ago, the band joined forces with Zdenek Macal and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in a bring-the-house-down performance of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture in the NJPAC Prudential Hall.

As a Master’s degree student at the Manhattan School of Music in 1972, CHARLES BAKER won the second trombone position in the NJSO. Mr. Baker was appointed principal trombone in 1975 by Max Rudolph (then NJSO music director) and became the orchestra personnel manager in 1989 until 2003.

Mr. Baker first learned to play the baritone horn in Salvation Army bands when he was very young and switched to the trombone when he was in second grade. The son of Salvation Army officers, he grew up all over the Northeast. His first trombone teacher was Philip Catelinet at Carnegie Mellon prep school; he later studied with Emory Remington (who has been called the dean of American trombone teachers) at the Eastman School of Music and Ed Herman at the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Baker has taught at Princeton, Rutgers, and Montclair State Universities.

In addition to his trombonist duties with the NJSO, Mr. Baker conducts the NJSO Brass and Percussion Ensemble. As an ongoing commitment he directs the Montclair Citadel Band of the Salvation Army. He has also been a guest conductor of the NJSO, Nassau Symphony, New Jersey Pops Orchestra and the Grand Teton Orchestral Seminar in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He studied conducting at Eastman with Taavo Virkhaus and Milford Fargo.

Item Special Note

Offer expires June 30, 2013.