Ole!

Conservatory Orchids, Ginter Botanical Gardens, Richmond, VA

The Sovereign Lord will sound the trumpet…

Zechariah 9:14c

As a musician, I like almost every type of music on the planet, but I do have my absolute favorites – two, in fact:  a male chorus and a brass ensemble.  Male choruses range from operatic to barbershop, and brass ensembles are all over the musical map in sound and style. 

Trumpets and horns date back to antiquity.  The children of Israel used the shofar (ram’s horn) to call the people to assembly and worship, announce the hour, or warn of imminent danger.  Trumpets were used in the military conquests recorded in the book of Judges, and continue on through the book of Revelation, where the angels blow the trumpet to call together the people of God.

The Venezuelan Brass Ensemble is a group of nearly fifty brass and percussion players drawn from the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.  They are an amazing group of men and women, each an artist in their own right.  Add a fiery Latin passion and a playful spirit to highly polished brass instruments and an endless cadre of percussion instruments, and you have the Venezuelan Brass Ensemble.