gateways brass collective

GATEWAYS BRASS COLLECTIVE

Through dynamic performances and inspirational educational programs, the Gateways Brass Collective (GBC) inspires artists and audiences of all backgrounds.

The Collective was founded in 2018 and includes Courtney Jones, DMA and Herbert Smith, trumpet; Eric Davis, DMA and Larry Williams, French horn; Isrea Butler, DMA, trombone; and Jerome Stover, DMA, tuba. In addition to participation in the Gateways Music Festival and maintaining active performance careers, each member of the Collective teaches at the collegiate level and regularly delivers educational clinics and masterclasses for students in elementary through high school, college/conservatory, and beyond. Their love for music is equally matched by their dedication, passion, and commitment to community and learning.

Accomplished in multiple genres, GBC members have performed with orchestras and big bands, as soloists, on Broadway, on commercial recordings, with indie bands, and more. They have performed with the Count Basie Big Band and Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New Jersey Symphony, Cab Calloway Orchestra, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Mingus Big Band/ Mingus Dynasty, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, David Byrne, Aretha Franklin, Sharon Jones, and the Dap-Kings, Johnny Mathis and Bernadette Peters, among many others. Their work has also been featured on Netflix, Lifetime Network, CW Network, and movie soundtracks. Members have been nominated for multiple GRAMMY Awards.

The GBC strives to support diverse communities, encourages everyone to be a part of the larger musical discourse, and welcomes opportunities to collaborate with artists from all backgrounds.

ABOUT THIS EVENING’S ARTISTS

ISREA BUTLER, DMA, TROMBONE | Butler has obtained multiple degrees in trombone performance from the Eastman School of Music (BM and MM) and Rutgers University (DMA). His teachers include John Marcellus, Ralph Sauer, George Roberts, Tom Ervin, Michael Powell, and Weston Sprott.

As well as being a founding member of the Gateways Brass Collective, he has played all four chairs in the world-famous Count Basie Orchestra and with many of New York City’s top jazz ensembles. In addition, he has played trombone and tuba for eight Broadway productions. Currently, he is the Music Department Head at Valdosta State University. He was the Music Department Chair at North Carolina Central University and Professor of Trombone from 2017-2021. He served as the Director of Bands and music program coordinator at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Director of Jazz Studies and Low Brass at the University of Mary. Butler was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Trombone at Jackson State University where he taught trombone, conducted the University Brass Ensemble, Jazz Combo, and taught Graduate Music History. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music, Juilliard School of Music’s Music Advancement Program (MAP), and Rutgers University. His students have gone on to perform, teach and study at graduate schools such as Indiana University, Berklee College of Music, University of Northern Iowa, Rutgers University, Eastman School of Music, University of Memphis, Towson University, and Montclair State University.

Butler has been the conductor of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Wind Ensemble, HBCU Trombone Choir, Associate Conductor of the Brighton Symphony, and Eastman Trombone Choir and Brass Guild. He studied conducting with Brad Lubman, William Weinert, Mark Scatterday, and Kynan Johns. While in New York, he was a frequent performer in numerous Broadway shows and many other prestigious musical performances. He has toured, recorded, and performed with many of the country’s leading jazz orchestras including the legacy orchestras of Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Mingus Big Band, Glenn Miller, Birdland Big Band, Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, and the Jimmy Heath Orchestra. Also at home playing classical music he has performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Rochester Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, and the Colour of Music Festival Orchestra. Butler is a Conn-Selmer clinician and performing artist.

COURTNEY JONES, DMA, TRUMPET | The newest directions in 21st-century trumpet performance are being explored and defined by Jones, an award-winning Bach solo performing and recording artist who has also emerged as a leading figure in contemporary performance, chamber conducting, pedagogy, and service to inner-city youth through music outreach programs and mentorship.

Jones is in high demand as a clinician and adjudicator and transcends stylistic boundaries when performing throughout North America and internationally. In addition to his solo career, he has performed with the Golden State Pop Orchestra, the Southeast Symphony, the Macao Orchestra, the Pasadena Orchestra, the Debut Orchestra, the Inspiravi Chamber Orchestra, the Orchid City Brass Band, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Long Beach Opera, the Chamber Singers of Iowa City, and the Salt-River Brass Band. His feature film and television credits include music performed for “Glee,” “Notes from Dad,” “Cougar Town,” and “Criminal Minds.”

Jones completed his Doctor of Musical Arts and taught at University of California at Los Angeles, served as Visiting Professor of Trumpet at the University of Iowa and Lecturer of Music at Columbus State University. He is currently the Assistant Professor of Trumpet and Artistic Director of Jazz and Chamber Ensembles at Florida Atlantic University.

HERBERT SMITH, TRUMPET | Smith’s varied teaching experience has included teaching musicians and non-musicians of all ages. He began his Artist in Residence work with the now disbanded Rochester Chapter of the Aesthetic Education Institute, and he is frequently involved in residencies with the Rochester City School District and many school districts in the surrounding area. Herb also conducts masterclasses and lectures on trumpet technique, endurance and sound production; works with high school bands and orchestras as teacher and soloist; and gives individual lessons in his private studio.

As a composer Smith has been commissioned to write pieces for brass ensembles, high school choirs, jazz ensembles and trumpet ensembles, all the while composing for his own jazz trio. Herb’s composition “The Twelve Tones of Christmas” for trumpet, piano and voice, was premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2008. Recently, Smith was commissioned to write a ballet for the Garth Fagen Children’s Ensemble. The six-part work of more than 40 minutes spanned many styles including Reggae, classical, Jazz and Funk. A four-voice piece for high school choir was premiered in 2014 at the Finney School in New York. Smith composed a fanfare for the dedication of the new auditorium at Our Lady of Mercy School for Young Women in Rochester.

Smith’s orchestral conducting debut took place with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in January 2019, where he leads a program aimed at dismantling the musical hierarchy of classical music and making it accessible to youth. He is a faculty member at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he directs two jazz bands and is frequently requested to conduct all-county big bands in upstate New York.

JEROME STOVER, TUBA | Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Jerome Stover currently serves as Assistant Professor of Tuba at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. Additionally, Dr. Stover is an active teacher and clinician in the Houston area, and has previously taught at the University of Hawaii, Rochester College, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell. As an ensemble member, Dr. Stover has performed with the Chicago, Boston, Houston, Detroit, Oregon, Jacksonville, Alabama, New Mexico, Korean Broadcasting System, and New World Symphonies as well as held the post of interim principal tubist of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, Stover has been featured with the Honolulu Symphony, the Yale University and University of New Mexico Schools of Music, and the International Tuba and Euphonium Association. Dr. Stover holds degrees in music from Indiana, DePaul, Yale, and Boston Universities.

LARRY WILLIAMS, FRENCH HORN | Multifaceted performing and recording artist, teacher, and administrator, Larry Williams is currently Principal Horn of the American Studio Orchestra, Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, Piedmont Symphony Orchestra, and the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra. Williams has performed with orchestras throughout the US, including the Baltimore, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and New World Symphony Orchestras. He is also a member of several chamber ensembles, including the Lyric Brass Quintet, and Rodney Marsalis' Philadelphia Big Brass. Williams served on the faculty of The Peabody Conservatory, Florida International University and was appointed Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. Williams currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Horn at Washington Adventist University and is Artistic Director of DMV Music Academy. Williams is a Yamaha Performing Artist/Clinician.

ABOUT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM’S DEPARTMENT OF LIVE ARTS

The Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Live Arts commissions and presents new works of performance: music, words, movement, sound, and related hybrids. This singular, artistically rigorous body of work furthers The Met’s commitment to living artists, deepens connections between audiences and works of art, and introduces untested modes of performance.

The department generates new scholarship and brings renewed relevance to historical art by putting it in conversation with contemporary performance. Live Arts produces the most expansive season of new and large-scale works in any museum-based performance series in the United States.