One spring day three years ago, five Duke students abroad with the Wind Symphony decided to stay after rehearsal and play together on the courtyard of Hofburg Palace in Vienna. The musically minded Viennese pedestrians stopped, listened and liked what they heard, even throwing Austrian shillings into the students' cases on the sidewalk. That afternoon, The Brass Ring was born.
The fall after Vienna, the official brass quintet met at the Hideaway and came up with a plan. Modeling their group on Canadian Brass, their idols, the five guys set a goal of integrating more popular music and the traditional brass repertoire to give their listeners a "unique brass experience."
"When we got back here, we had to switch gears a little, because you can't just go out in the middle of Durham and start playing and expect people to react the same [as they did in Vienna]," said trombone player Gary Gustavsen, a senior.
The group began to experiment with performing on campus. Following in the footsteps of the many a cappella groups on campus, The Brass Ring tried their hand at dorm shows. "We did one or two of those my sophomore year," remembered euphonium player Richard Berg, a senior. "They were fun but we ran out of material pretty quickly and never picked it up again."
The quintet was hired to perform by groups on campus occasionally. They played on the quad for fraternities, at cultural events, and even tried a pop tune medley of Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and 'N Sync their first year on campus. But it was off campus where they were really able to develop as an ensemble.
Eventually, the group found their knack performing regularly at Sunday church services, weddings and other community functions.
Last fall, once they were established off campus, The Brass Ring began to consider options for improving their presence on campus. They began a tradition of playing on East Campus every Friday afternoon to simulate the ringing of the Chapel bells on West Campus.
Most of The Brass Ring's members have composed pieces for the group; senior Erik Simpson wrote "Malungo," a piece inspired by the African slave trade to Brazil, for brass quintet and piano. Accompanied by assistant professor of music Anthony Kelley, the group performed the piece at Simpson and Gustavsen's Advanced Composition recital last spring, and Simpson won Best Undergraduate Composition.
The Brass Ring was invited to play Simpson's piece at a church in Raleigh when Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a leader in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, visited last spring. "There were paparazzi all around this random church that we played at," Berg said. "We had to get there four hours early."
The face of the group has changed some over the past few years. Berg plays euphonium on the part that was formerly played on the tuba by Brian Freid '02. But the group still includes five members from the original Vienna trip, including Mike Wolff '02, french horn player who now resides in Durham.
The biggest problem the group faces, however, is the fact that all of those members either have graduated or will graduate this year-a difficulty that was accelerated when Simpson, the group's lead trumpet, announced that he would graduate next month.
"Once we heard that Erik was graduating early, one of our strongest members, one of the guiding members, that took the wind out of our sails a bit," Berg said.
This year, the group has not been as active on campus or in the community. "Things have been in flux with the changing dynamic of the group, keeping up off-campus responsibilities, and maintaining that with people going in and out," explained Berg. "Primarily, the [uncertainty] has kept us from branching out to more responsibilities."
While senior Jacob Dickson, trumpet player, agreed that Simpson's early graduation poses the group's "biggest challenge," he remained optimistic about the group's future, since Ethan Eade, a junior, will replace Simpson. "We're going to try to pick things up for next semester," he said.
Another reason the group has been less active this semester is that all of the members are highly talented musicians playing in multiple musical ensembles, many with double majors or other major time commitments.
"We're kind of disorganized and all so busy," Simpson explained. "We have guys that do just about everything. It's really hard to plan rehearsals and performances around all of our schedules."
As for next year, the guys hope to maintain their group. Gustavsen said, "We've built up a name in the community, and it would be nice to fill the spots with some people to keep the tradition of The Brass Ring alive."
But as the members' plans for next year are still unclear, the group is still unsure of its future. "It's going to be pretty tough, since many people may be leaving, to keep the group going," Dickson said.
The Brass Ring has a history that may not just die out, though. Berg explained, "I figure as long as there are people from the core original group living in Durham, they will want to be involved in this, and as some of them move on to bigger and better things, we will look to fill those spots."
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