Jake Grimsley

Cory Band

This concert was a bit of an out-of-body experience for everyone in the theater that

night. Philip Harper, the director of the Cory Band and arranger/composer for many of the

pieces gave a decent introduction for almost all of their pieces. The first half of their program,

which entailed six different pieces, had a lot more variance in the selection of the pieces. There

were some pieces of music from many different eras of brass band literature, interspersed with

sort-of concerto-type pieces highlighting some of their best musicians. “The Paragon”

highlighted principal cornettist Tom Hutchinson. This was incredible to watch, even as a non-

brass player. He used a triple-tonguing technique, amazingly fast while still moving notes

quickly. This was hugely interesting to watch as well as seeing just how quickly he was able to

switch from fingering to fingering. He is a truly virtuosic player, and it was great to see the

height of playing that instrument. The other piece, simply called “Trombone solo” in the

program featured trombone soloist Chris Thomas. As I am playing trombone in Brass

Techniques at this moment, it was wonderful to watch this, while having been learning a lot of

the techniques he used at the same time. The sheer volume he was able to get out of his

instrument was hugely impressive, as well as his range on the low end. He played far lower than

I had heard trombones at some points, and his ability to switch slide positions at the speed he did

was amazing. They closed out this half of the show with the piece they had just recently won a

large competition with, Titan’s Progress. The way they were able to bring out the different

compositional techniques to give the exact feeling that we were supposed to get out of the piece

was nothing short of masterful. The second half of the program, mostly either arranged or

composed by Philip Harper, took us through the story of Romeo and Juliet, which was easy to
follow, especially with Philip Harper himself giving us a rundown of what each piece was about

before it started. The concert then ended with them playing Enter the Galaxies with the JMU

Brass Band also on stage. This concert was nothing short of inspiring seeing what hard work and

dedication can lead to, and gives me a whole new appreciation for music as a whole.