Joan Lippincott and the Philadelphia Brass ($10.00) 

Acclaimed organist Joan Lippincott joins Philadelphia Brass for a wonderfully varied and sonically stunning program of works both familiar and unknown for this powerful combination. The performers find all the elegance and delicacy required by Campra’s jewel-like dances, but they can also pull out all the stops for music by Dupré, Gigout and Widor. Released on the Gothic label.

“The choice of less well known works is inspired…spine-tingling…highly recommended.” -Organist’s Review

Additional tracks include:
Marche Triomphale – Sigfrid Karg-Elert
Feierlicher Einzug – Richard Strauss
Rigaudon – Andre Campra
Concerto for Organ and Brasses – Normand Lockwood
Grande-Choeur Dialogue – Eugene Gigout
Gloria for Brass and Organ – Daniel Pinkham
Poeme Heroique – Marcel Deupre

Philadelphia Brass: Christmas ($10.00)

A Christmas CD with a point of view. This disc has been a popular favorite with audiences from the start. It includes many original arrangements created just for this recording and is the favorite of many of the quintet’s members. You’ve never heard your favorites sound like this.

“…beautifully played throughout. The arrangements on your CD are a long cut above what I’ve been hearing in recent Christmases.” -John Harbison

Additional tracks include:

The Wexford Carol – arr. J.A.C. Redford
Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine – arr. J.A.C. Redford
I Wonder As I Wander – arr. J.A.C. Redford
Sussani – arr. J.A.C. Redford
Ding Dong! Marrily On High – arr. J. Rutter
Sussex Carol – arr. R. Harvey
O Come, All Ye Faithful – arr. H. Cable
Fantasy On Come All Ye Shepherds – arr. S. de Haan
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen – arr. R.R. McGregor
How Brightly Beams the Morning Star – J. Harbison
Noel, Nouvelet – arr. K. Snell
O Come O Come Emmanuel – arr. R. Price
Coventry Carol – arr. R. Price
Angels We Have Heard On High – arr. R. Price
Good King Wencelas – arr. R. Price
Carol of the Bells – arr. R. Price
Silent Night – arr. W.B. Roberts
We Wish You a Merry Christmas – Traditional

Philadelphia Brass: Renaissance & Baroque ($10.00)

This best-selling recording has garnered unanimous critical praise since its release in 1993. It includes Handel’s Fireworks Overture, Bach’s Art of the Fugue, Elizabethan court music, and a variety of other works from these glittering eras.

“…consummate technical ability…each melodic line is highly polished; the accompaniments always musical.” -International Trumpet Guild

Additional tracks include:

Fancies, Toyes and Dreames – Giles Farnaby/Howarth
Prelude and Fugue on the Name BACH – J.S.Bach/Mills
16th Century Carmina – ed. John Glasel
Rondeau – Jean Joseph Mouret
Contrapunctus IX – J.S. Bach
Four Dances – William Brade

Philadelphia Brass: Christmas in the Grand Tradition ($10.00)(Temporarily out of stock)

Philadelphia Brass is pleased to announce the official release of “Christmas in the Grand Tradition”, featuring our friend and acclaimed organist, Peter Richard Conte, the Grand Court Organist performing on the world renown Wanamaker Organ at Macy’s Department Store in Center City Philadelphia, on Gothic Records.

With impressive engineering by Jim Stemke of DSP recordings, our newest release is a must have for Brass and Organ enthusiasts alike.

Additional tracks include:

Bring A Torch, Jennette Isabella
I Saw Three Ships
Greensleeves
For Unto Us A Child Is Born
In Dulci Jubilo
Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
Silent Night
La Nativite
Winter’s Night
Good King Wenceslas
Variations on ‘Adeste Fideles’

Philadelphia Brass members perform and collaborate with some of the leading orchestras, opera companies, and universities in the Northeast.  Here are some of the groups that our members perform with:

• Philadelphia Ballet
• Delaware Symphony Orchestra
• Ocean City Pops
• Walnut Street Theater
• operaphilly.com
• bach.org
• chamberorchestra.org

Philadelphia Brass was formed in 1988 with a mission to perform the best of brass quintet literature from all periods and styles while educating the public to the pleasures, subtleties, and complexities of chamber music. One of their unique strengths is the palpable sense of respect, affection and musical enjoyment among its members. This allows the players to perform with exceptional flexibility and cohesiveness, and enhances the ensemble’s appeal to audiences of all ages. Critics and public alike have enthusiastically praised their appealing diversity of repertoire, technical virtuosity, humorous and informative educational dialogue, and superb musicality. The group’s playing has been celebrated as “artistry of the highest calibre” and “dazzling technique” by presenters. Individually, the members of Philadelphia Brass have performed with the world’s top musical ensembles, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, among many others. Its master classes have been called “excellent and sensitively handled” and esteemed American composer, the late Daniel Pinkham, has written that Philadelphia Brass is “the most artistic brass quintet before the public today.”

Philadelphia Brass is dedicated to music education and has a long history of performing programs for students at all levels. Previous master classes and residencies have taken place in such settings as the Juilliard School, the University of Maryland’s School of Music, Lehigh University, Villanova University and in numerous public schools such as Bedford and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Grass Valley, California and the Kenai Peninsula Borough in Soldotna, Alaska. 

The ensemble has toured extensively throughout the United States, the United Kingdom and has completed two well-received tours to Bolivia on behalf of the U.S. State Department in collaboration with the Asociacion pro Arte y Cultura’s Baroque Festival based in Santa Cruz. Daniel Pinkham’s Creation of the World, a work for brass, organ, choir, and narrator co-commissioned by Philadelphia Brass and 13 presenters across the country, was premiered by Philadelphia Brass in 1995. Other premiers have included commissioned works by David Diamond, J.A.C. Redford, Robert Elkjer, Jack Gale, Dick Hyman and Paul Salerni.

Philadelphia Brass has produced five CDs: “Renaissance and Baroque”, “Joan Lippincott and Philadelphia Brass”, “Christmas”, “Christmas in the Grand Tradition” with Peter Conte and the Wanamaker Organ, “The Anniversary Album”, and is featured in Family Portrait and Smoky Mountain Fanfare, two pieces on the new Summit Records CD, “David Sampson – Notes from Far Away Places”.  (2021)

Please download a complete, printable Philadelphia Brass Press Kit by clicking the PDF icon.

Steven Heitzer, a native Philadelphian, is an active classical trumpet player in the tri-state area.  He is a member of Opera Philadelphia, Bach Festival Orchestra of Bethlehem, Reading Symphony and Ocean City Pops Orchestra.  He is also a frequent performer with Delaware Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Ballet Orchestra, Lancaster Symphony, and the Walnut Street Theatre.

Steve’s many performing credits include Dave Brubeck, Branford Marsalis, Don Rickles, Peter Nero and Luciano Pavoratti among others.  Steven’s main musical interest besides playing the trumpet is arranging music.  He has scored nearly 200 brass arrangements for Philadelphia Brass, the Delaware Symphony, Ocean City Pops Orchestra as well as works for various choirs and organists around the Philadelphia region.  He received his undergraduate degree from Temple University and his master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music.

He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Kelly, a jazz vocalist and music therapist. In his spare time, when not arranging music, Steve enjoys old movies, spy novels, and crossword puzzles.

Scott Mendoker has performed recitals and given master classes in Japan, Taiwan, South Africa, Bolivia and throughout the United States. Highlights include the world premiers of “The Bezoar Concerto” by Vern Miller, Jr. with the United States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own”, “Serenata” for Solo Tuba and Wind Ensemble by David Sampson in Carnegie Hall with the Rutgers Wind Ensemble and, again, with the United States Air Force Academy Band in Denver, Colorado and “Heavy Weather” for Solo Tuba and Wind Ensemble by Jess Langston Turner at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School. Scott has also recorded “Heavy Weather” with the Hartt Wind Ensemble for the Naxos label. Other recordings include “Kansas City Dances”, a tuba concerto by David Holsinger with the Rutgers University Wind Ensemble – Dr. William Berz, conductor (Mark Records), Eddie Sauter’s “Piece for Tuba and Sax Quartet” with the New Hudson Sax Quartet (Naxos), David Sampson’s “Three Portraits” for Tuba and Chamber Orchestra with members of the Czech Philharmonic (Summit) and “Even Song” for tuba and electronics also written for him by David Sampson and is on the Summit label. Scott has just recorded two more works by Mr. Sampson – “Emma’s Dance” and “Sightline” – both for tuba and piano. They will also appear on the Summit Records label.

As part of a busy freelance career, Scott has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. And from 1979-82, he was Principal Tuba with the National Symphony Orchestra of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)

Scott was a longtime student of the late Arnold Jacobs, widely considered to be one of the greatest brass teachers of the 20th century and Principal Tuba with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for over 44 years. He has also studied with Warren Deck, Principal Tuba with the New York Philharmonic (retired). Scott’s former students hold positions in many highly respected colleges and universities, several major orchestras both in the United States and abroad, as well as some of our nation’s top military bands.

Currently, Scott teaches tuba and chamber music at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. Before joining the Hartt School, Scott served on the faculty of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University for 21 years. Mr. Mendoker is a member of the award-winning brass quintet – Philadelphia Brass and is an International Performing Artist for Eastman Tubas.

Brian Kuszyk is principal trumpet of the Opera Philadelphia,  Philadelphia Ballet, Delaware Symphony Orchestra, The Academy of Vocal Arts Orchestra, a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and a substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra.  As soloist, he has been featured with the Delaware Symphony, the Philadelphia Ballet and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.  He also served for sixteen years as principal trumpet with the Opera Festival of New Jersey.

As a member of Philadelphia Brass for the past thirty years, he has toured the United States extensively, as well as foreign tours to England and Bolivia.  With Philadelphia Brass, he has given master classes at Julliard, St. Olaf College, Luther College, The University of Wisconsin and the University of Maryland among others, and has recorded 6 CDs with the group.

After completing his musical education at Temple University as a student of Seymour Rosenfeld, he continued his musical studies with William Vacchiano and Vince Penzarella. Among his national TV, radio and film credits is “Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale”, the NFL Film’s Emmy Award-winning documentary “Johnny Unitas” and a Latin Grammy-winning recording “Interchange” with the LA Guitar Quartet and the Delaware Symphony. He has performed under Wolfgang Sawallisch, Simon Rattle, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Lorin Mazel among others.

Brian has been a member of the performance faculty of Princeton University since 2018 and was Professor of Trumpet at the University of Delaware for the 2018-2019 year, and served as Professor of Trumpet at West Chester University for the fall semester of 2023.

He lives in Merion Station, PA with his wife Laure, a high school French teacher.

Robert Gale is principal trombone with Opera Philadelphia, the The Academy of Vocal Arts Orchestra, and a member of the pit orchestra of the Walnut Street Theater. He is on the faculty of The College of New Jersey.  Bob has performed as principal trombone with the St. Louis and Richmond Symphonies and has recorded for many vocal artists and major motion pictures. After graduating from the University of Illinois, his diverse career also included extensive touring with the swing bands of Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Les Elgart and Bob Crosby and the back-up bands for Bob Hope, Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow, Donna Summer, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Natalie Cole and many others.

His love for music and teaching is closely followed by his love for movies, which he sees, in his estimation, many more than he should.  Bob lives in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania with his wife, violinist Martha Mott-Gale.