Joanna Ross Hersey will present a lecture and recital during SIU Carbondale’s School of Music’s Brass Day on Nov. 13, which will also bring more than 100 middle and high school students to campus. (Photo provided)
November 06, 2024
SIU Brass Day features visits by middle, high school students, lecture and recital
CARBONDALE, Ill. — More than 100 middle school and high school students from throughout the region are expected to learn the intricacies of playing brass instruments and hear from accomplished tubist and composer Joanna Ross Hersey at the second Brass Day, hosted by Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s School of Music on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
Hersey will also perform a free, public recital at 5 p.m. in the Old Baptist Foundation Recital Hall on campus, where she will be accompanied on piano by Anthony Gray, an assistant professor of practice, and on trombone by Jessica Butler, an assistant professor in the School of Music.
Butler, along with School of Music brass faculty Jennifer Presar, associate professor of practice and Ricky Spears, assistant professor of practice, and Hersey, will work with students through the day. All students will begin with breathing exercises in Shryock Auditorium before breaking into groups based on their instrument type for technique classes.
Media availability
Reporters, photographers and camera crews are welcome to cover Brass Day activities. For more information or assistance in arranging interviews, contact Jessica Butler, SIU School of Music assistant professor, at j.butler@siu.edu or the School of Music at 618-536-8742.
Hersey is professor of music and associate dean of student success and curriculum for the College of Arts at the University of North Carolina Pembroke. With more than 20 years in higher education, Hersey began her career as principal tubist with the U.S. Coast Guard Band when she was 19 years old. She earned a bachelor’s degree in women’s, gender and sexuality studies from the University of Connecticut, and she is secretary of the Historic Brass Society and past president of the International Women’s Brass Conference.
Lecture highlights female tubist
At noon, Hersey’s lecture, “Finding Marie: A Story of Tubas, Trains and Tenacity,” will tell a story inspired by the life of Marie Backstrom, who along with her tuba, toured with the Harlem Playgirls, a 12-piece Black women’s dance band that traveled the nation from 1935-1940. The lecture on Backstrom is one that honors her story “and the work of her generation in shaping the swing era.”
The lecture, also in the Old Baptist Foundation Recital Hall, is free and open to the public.
Following the lecture, students will watch, with some participating, in a master class with all the Brass Day faculty, and then sit in on a SIU Wind Ensemble rehearsal.
The lecture and recital is sponsored by the SIU Fine Arts Activity Fee.