Photo provided Kentucky-based group Bourbon & Brass Company is set to perform a free concert Tuesday at The Commons as part of National Parks and Recreation Month.
Kentucky-based group Bourbon & Brass Company is set to perform a free concert Tuesday at The Commons as part of National Parks and Recreation Month. While this may be the group’s first time performing in Columbus, to its bass trombonist Carter Woosley, it’s somewhat of a homecoming.
“My connection to Columbus is I’m also the bass trombonist in the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, so I’m up there all the time,” Woosley said. “65 is practically where I live.”
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Nugent-Custer Performance Hall at The Commons Tuesday.
Formed in 2019, Bourbon & Brass Company came about when students of the University of Louisville found themselves forming a chamber ensemble for a chamber music credit. They enjoyed playing together so much that they decided to keep playing outside of school after the semester ended, Woosley said.
The group consists of five members; Woosley, Nick Felty on trumpet, William Joiner on trumpet, Lizzie Cooksey on French horn and Josh Lang on tenor trumpet. Joining them on this upcoming tour will be trumpet player Jeffrey Doll, one of the founding members of Bourbon & Brass Company who left in 2020 to pursue his doctoral degree, according to Woosley.
According to its website, Bourbon & Brass Company provides engaging performances with choreography, interaction with the audience and personalized performances that include their own arrangements and compositions. Woosley described their style as exciting and varied arrangements of pop music for brass, but they play a variety of everything from classical to jazz.
“Jazz is probably the main cornerstone of our catalog, but we also do… probably 75 to 80% of the arranging of our charts by ourselves,” Woosley said. ”So we do a lot of pop, country music, rock music. We love doing music movie soundtracks, so we’ll have some Disney scores and stuff like that. Really, it’s going to be a great variety of everything.”
The group stuck with performing around Louisville for their first couple of years, later expanding to performing with the Midway University Choir about an hour away. They have since expanded to play in locations throughout Michigan and two locations in Indiana, those being Henryville and Clarksville.
Bourbon & Brass Company’s upcoming Columbus performance will mark the first stop in a 10-day long tour that will later take them up to Michigan. Woosley said they are all looking forward to playing in Columbus, especially since their French horn player Cooksey is currently attending Indiana University for her doctorate.
“She’s been trying to get us up in Bloomington for a while, we just haven’t been able to make it work schedule wise,” Woosley said. “We’re all super excited to be close to Bloomington and I’ve been telling the group for a long time of how great Columbus is, it’s such a neat little town.”
Audience members can anticipate a lot of energy and versatility all skillfully played on brass, which Woosley said will provide an energetic punch to everything.
