Texas-based music group Dallas Brass will perform in Cortez next week, and conduct master classes for music students at Cortez Middle School and Montezuma-Cortez High School.
“We’re really excited to have them here,” middle school band director Andrew Campo said Friday.
The concert is Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. at the M-CHS Auditorium and is part of the Southwest Colorado Concerts series. Tickets are $25 and are $10 for parents of band students. Southwest Colorado Concerts season ticket holders get in free.
The price is discounted for parents so that more will be able to see their kids perform in the “once in a lifetime experience,” Campo said.
Dallas Brass play a mix of classical and popular music, including jazz and Dixieland, Campo said. The group was founded in 1983. In addition to touring and recording music, the group visits schools to put on educational programs for students, Campo said.
The group’s “Music in the Schools” project includes a master class and rehearsals with music students as well as an evening performance, according to the Dallas Brass website.
Students will sit in on a master class and rehearse with the group before the concert on Feb. 8. Then, students from each school will perform a tune with the Dallas Brass, Campo said.
The school groups have been rehearsing the pieces they plan to play with the Dallas Brass for several weeks, he said.
Several musicians have put on master classes for Cortez music students in the past few years, Campo said. The classes have been successful for the kids, he said.
“This is the stuff they’ll remember when they’re 40 or 50,” Campo said. “That’s why we do it. Hopefully, it will inspire them to keep playing.”
jacobk@the-journal.com