World Class Brass All-Stars!
7:30 p.m.
Stevens Center
Piedmont Wind Symphony

Mark A. Norman, conductor with guest soloists Adam Rapa (Trumpet), Jeff Scott (Horn), Matt Niess (Trombone) and Oystein Baadsvik (Tuba).

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Check In
10-10:30 a.m.
Watson Hall Lobby

Guest Artist Master Classes
10:45 a.m.

• Adam Rapa, Trumpet in Watson Hall
• Jeff Scott, Horn in Crawford Hall
• Matt Niess, Trombone in SAAB 101
• Oystein Baadsvik, Tuba/Euphonium in Hood Recital Hall

Lunch
12 p.m.

Watson Brass Master Class
1 p.m.
Watson Hall

• David Dash, Trumpet
• Maria Serkin, Horn
• John Ilika, Trombone
• Brent Harvey, Tuba

Jazz Combo Recital featuring Adam Rapa and Matt Niess
2:30 p.m.
Watson Hall

Brass Chamber Music Recital
4 p.m.
Watson Hall

• US Army 82^nd Airbourne "All-American" Brass Quintet
• UNC at Greensboro Trumpet Ensemble - Garrett Klein, Director
• UNCSA Bergstone Brass - Mark A. Norman, Conductor

Dinner
5:30 p.m.

Brass IMPACT! Concert
7:30 p.m.
Watson Hall

• Mark A. Norman, conductor
• Adam Rapa, Trumpet
• Jeff Scott, Horn
• Matt Niess, Trombone
• Oystein Baadsvik, Tuba
• Watson Brass

Brass IMPACT! is a benefit performance for the Piedmont Wind Symphony/UNCSA Fellowship program.

Adam Rapa is a dynamic performer, composer and educator who has become widely known for the excitement, energy and enthusiasm he brings to stages and classrooms around the world. Rapa was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts.

He began studying the trumpet at eleven years old, playing professionally at age thirteen and was playing lead trumpet in many of the big bands at Berklee College of Music by sixteen. By the age of eighteen, he had appeared in many jazz festivals around the country and played at every major jazz club in Boston and many in New York, including the Blue Note.

Since being a featured guest artist at both the 2007 & 2008 National Trumpet Competition in Washington D.C. and the 2008 International Trumpet Guild conference in Banff, Canada, Rapa has been featured at trumpet conferences around the world including the Scottish International Festival of Trumpets, the International Trumpet Conference in São Paulo, Brazil, and the Melbourne International Brass Festival in Australia. Rapa is grateful to have shared the stage and/or recorded with Grammy Award winners Nicholas Payton & Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride, Doc Severinsen, Mnozil Brass, Soulive,

The New Life Jazz Orchestra, Wycliffe Gordon, Eric Reed, Jason Moran, Robert Glasper, Cyrus Chestnut, Academy Award winning film composer A.R. Rahman, and many other great artists over the years. His first solo album, “Life on the Road” has received critical acclaim for its vast musical diversity, virtuosity and soul. And his second album, “Rebelión” is taking the brass world by storm.

From 2001 to 2007, Rapa starred in the Tony and Emmy Award winning Broadway show, “Blast!” and several other productions by the same company, performing well over 2000 shows across North America, Japan and the U.K. Recently, he produced a CD by members of the “Blast!” cast, which includes several of his own tracks. Rapa frequently travels as a guest performer and clinician at universities, and high schools around the world. Adam looks forward to a long career of producing innovative and inspiring musical and theatrical experiences, and contributing to the greater good through the medium of art.

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Jeff Scott served as French hornist of the Oberlin-founded ensemble Imani Winds for more than 20 years, a position that took him to Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Kennedy Center, and countless other prominent stages—as well as the stage of Finney Chapel for an Artist Recital Series performance in 2014. With Imani Winds, he led master classes with hundreds of students every year.

Scott has been a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Dance Theater of Harlem since 1995, and he has performed numerous times with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra under the direction of Wynton Marsalis. He was an orchestra member for The Lion King’s Broadway run from 1997 to 2005, as well as the 1994 revival of Show Boat.

In the studio, Scott has performed on movie soundtracks by Terence Blanchard and Tan Dun, and has collaborated with the likes of Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Chris Brubeck, Jimmy Heath, and others. He has toured with the backing ensembles of Barbra Streisand and Luther Vandross.

Insatiable in his appetite for all aspects of the creative process, Scott has served as composer or arranger for a multitude of projects, including an Off Broadway production of Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee and the staged production of Josephine Baker: A Life of le Jazz Hot!, in addition to many original works for solo winds and ensembles of all kinds. Scott is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied under David Jolley. He earned a master’s degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook under William Purvis, and he continued his studies with Scott Brubaker and Jerome Ashby.

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Dr. Matthew Niess is a Washington, DC based cross-over Edwards Trombonist and Summit label recording artist. He served in The U.S. Army Band “Pershing's Own” as lead trombone with The Army Blues Jazz Ensemble and trombonist with The U.S. Army Brass Quintet. He is currently a member of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. He began his teaching career as Director of Bands at Calvert High School and has since taught at Towson, West Chester, and George Mason Universities. In 2021 he became Director of Jazz Studies and Professor of Trombone at Shenandoah Conservatory. He is the founder and director of The Capitol Bones, The National Jazz Workshop, and has appeared as a soloist, clinician, and adjudicator at numerous schools venues throughout the United States.

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Øystein Baadsvik is voted one of the top ten brass players in history by the listeners on Classic FM. He did the first TED talk on the topic tuba and is one of the most popular classical musicians on YouTube with more than six million views. His multi-faceted musical career as a soloist and recording artist has taken him all over the world. He regularly gives masterclasses and clinics at major universities worldwide. His engagements include performances with orchestras such as the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Taipei National Symphony Orchestra and Singapore Philharmonic. Baadsvik has performed in some of the most famous venues in the world and 2006 made his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall.

Baadsvik is an active recording artist whose CDs receive unstinting praise. In their review of “Tuba Works”, American Record Guide said, “This spectacular recording establishes Baadsvik as one of the best solo tubists in the world.” Film composer John Williams said about Baadsvik’s recording of his tuba concerto: "His rendering of my concerto far surpasses anything a composer might hope for."

Learn more about Øystein Baadsvik