Saint Louis Brass Quintet to perform first Lincoln concert

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By JEFF KORBELIK / GZO

The Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music and the Saint Louis Brass Quintet have something in common — they both turn 44 years old this year.

“We still love it,” said trombonist and founding member Melvyn Jernigan.

“Our tuba player is still playing solo recitals, just played one in Arkansas  last week,” Jernigan added. “That’s unheard of for me. I just have enough of my lip going to do these tours.”

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The Saint Louis Brass Quintet is comprised of Daniel Perantoni (top left, clockwise), Allan Dean, Melvyn Jernigan, Ray Sasaki and Thomas Bacon. The ensemble will perform Oct. 10, 2008, for the Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music. (Courtesy photo)

The Saint Louis Brass Quintet is comprised of Daniel Perantoni (top left, clockwise), Allan Dean, Melvyn Jernigan, Ray Sasaki and Thomas Bacon. The ensemble will perform Oct. 10, 2008, for the Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music. (Courtesy photo)

The five musicians look forward to their tours, getting together two or three times a year to traverse the country.

The Saint Louis Brass Quintet will be in Lincoln tonight to kick off the Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music’s 2008-09 season at the Sheldon Museum of Art. It will be the quintet’s first LFCM performance.

The group was formed in 1964 by members of the St. Louis Symphony to play children’s concerts around St. Louis. Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Missouri Arts Council and the Mid-America Arts Alliance allowed the ensemble to expand its performance base.

Soon after, it expanded its repertoire.

“We used to play only what was published, and that was kind of limited,” Jernigan said in a phone interview from his St. Louis home.

The quintet eventually began commissioning jazz and classical pieces for itself. Member and trumpet player Allan Dean, a Yale music professor, also started arranging Renaissance music, which has become the group’s trademark.

The Lincoln concert will include several Renaissance selections in addition to two new pieces, including a work titled “Wolfgang Frolics.”

“The composer took advantage of Mozart’s lighter side,” Jernigan said. “There are little snippets of Mozart, but, man, they are hard to find. It’s truly a modern piece in feeling and everything.”

In addition to Jernigan and Dean, the quintet is comprised of horn player Thomas Bacon, a soloist and recording artist; trumpet player Ray Sasaki, a University of Texas music professor and tuba player Daniel Perantoni, a music professor at Indiana University.

With the members living and working in different cities, the only time the ensemble rehearses is when it’s on tour. The rehearsal process includes lots of playing, and not much talking.

But, now, after 44 years, the members are thinking retirement.

“We’ve talked about that and wondered what’s going to happen when we do, and which one of us is going to give up first,” Jernigan said.

“I have this fantasy,” he added, “that when we do decide, we leave all of our equipment and just walk away.”

Of course, that could be another 44 years from now.

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.