Part of Bridgeport Public Library's Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration

The newly-formed Benedum Brass Quintet gave its first performance at the Bridgeport Public Library on Saturday, March 1, 2006 at 1:30pm.  They played for a crowd of children and adults as part of the library's Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration.
 
The quintet, formed in late 2007, includes Molly Thomas on Trumpet, Nicholas McKibben on Cornet, Brian McKibben on Euphonium, Joe Thomas on Baritone and Russ McIntyre on Trombone.  All of the members of the group have played together for several years in the Shinnston Community Band (and continue to do so), but decided to form the quintet because they wanted to play more often and for different audiences.
 
Saturday's performance opened with Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever followed by Be Still My Soul by Sibelius.  Next, the group passed out percussion instruments to the children and invited them to play along with the Irish Washerwoman Jig.  This was followed by two "marching" songs: The Ants Go Marching and a Limbo.  To wrap things up, the group played another Sousa march: The Washington Post.

Brian McKibben, the founder of the quintet, says that he has "always wanted to play little concerts at our library, so when we were looking for a place to play our first performance, I knew it had to be the library.  We wanted the 'show' to involve the kids and to demonstrate a few musical concepts to them like 'slow' versus 'fast', playing along on percussion toys, identifying which instruments are playing the melody, and marching with a rhythm.  It was a little noisy, but I think everyone had fun."
 
The Benedum Brass Quintet's next performance is planned to be at the Shinnston Independence Celebration.  The quintet is available to play for other venues by arrangement with Brian McKibben.
 
The quintet can be contacted at bmckibben@benedumbrass.com, or via its web site: www.benedumbrass.com.