When Marco Braito (trumpet), Marco Pierobon (trumpet), Nilo Caracristi (horn), Gianluca Scipioni (trombone), Stefano Ammannati (tuba) – in 1999, “only” five musicians from the world’s most prestigious orchestras – founded the Gomalan Brass Quintet, they didn’t realise that they were creating one of the most successful and entertaining shows of our time. The quintet’s extraordinary musical and virtuoso qualities, according to Zubin Mehta, a repertoire, based on original or existing arrangements, that ranges from Renaissance to contemporary music and movies soundtracks, the theatrical wit of their annually renewed performances have seduced both the audience and the critics, worldwide.
In November 2001, the group won the “Town of Passau” International Contest first prize, one of the world’s most prestigious brass awards, receiving enthusiastic praise from international brass celebrities such as Roger Bobo, David Ohanian, Steven Mead, Dale Clevenger and Froydis Ree Wekre.
A regular presence at the most important concert halls and Italian musical festivals, (Festival di Stresa, The Sounds of the Dolomites, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, the theatres of Bolzano, Parma, Bologna, Turin, Milan), the Gomalan Brass’ has also performed in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Germany, and Greece, and has given Master Classes at Tanglewood’s Institute of Music, Toronto’s University of Music, at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and at the University of Music in Glasgow. During summer 2009 the Gomalan Brass Quintet was on a five days tour in Japan, followed by concerts in Spain and many dates in Italy, among which a residency at musicaRivafestival (Riva del Garda – TN) both as performers (last year with Italy’s premiere of Jean Michel Jarre’s concert for brass quintet and orchestra Couleurs du temps) and teachers (master classes).
Many radios have broadcast concerts and pieces by the Gomalan Brass Quintet, to name but a few: Bayerisches Rundfunk, Radio Vaticana, Radio Classica, Radio Canada, RSI (Italian Swiss Radio) and Radio Rai Tre (for whom the group has performed several world premieres).
The Quintet has released their first two Cds by Summit Records, and the third one by Naxos, released in 2010, has been one of the most downloaded on www.classicsonline.it. A Cd-Dvd containing Piacenza and Lodi (2008-2009) lives has been published in autumn 2010.
