Trumpeter Frank Gabriel Campos and pianist Diane Birr will give a free concert at Ithaca College on Wednesday, March 3. The performance will begin at 8:15 p.m. in the Hockett Family Recital Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.
Playing gems of the Baroque era on a small, brilliant sounding version of the trumpet known as the piccolo trumpet, Campos will perform a toccata by Giambattista Martini, Concerto in D Major by Tomaso Albinoni, and Handel's popular aria Let the Bright Seraphim, sung by soprano Deborah Montgomery-Cove. Henri Tomasi's Concerto for Trumpet will round out the program.
"Tomasi was intrigued with American jazz when he wrote this piece in 1948," Campos says. "The middle movement sounds like a ballad by Harry James, and the first movement features a cadenza that is marked 'Tempo di Blues.' "
Currently principal trumpet of the Binghamton Philharmonic, Campos is also a member of the Ithaca Brass and performs with the Syracuse Symphony. He has also appeared with Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bob Hope.
Birr performs extensively as a piano collaborator and serves as an official accompanist to the Music Teacher National Association national competitions, the International Brass Congress, and the International Horn Society Workshop.
The Ithaca College School of Music offers some 300 free concerts each academic year. More information on these performances is available by calling (607) 274-3356 or visiting the concert calendar at www.ithaca.edu/concerts.
Contributed by Erik Kibelsbeck
