News

Blue Ridge Symphonic Brass performs Sunday

By Lightning Reports, Published: February 18, 2026

Blue Ridge Symphonic Brass will present the third concert of the current season at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22, at Grace Lutheran Church, 1245 6th Avenue West.

The program of works for brass, conducted by Cole Hairston, is free and open to the public, with donations appreciated and accepted.

Maestro Hairston has designed a program that will offer an appealing variety of music, including an exciting brass version of A Mighty Fortress: A Church Festival Overture for Brass Choir, the Welsh chorale Brin Calfaria, a powerful arrangement of the Prelude 14 by Dmitri Shostakovich and Tchesnokoff’s majestic Salvation Is Created. A special offering is the musical portrayal of A Londoner in New York in three movements titled Echoes of Harlem, The Chrysler Building and Grand Central. Rounding out the program is Purcell’s Voluntary on Old 100th and an antiphonal double choir selection by Giovanni Gabrieli, always an audience favorite.

Blue Ridge Symphonic Brass, featuring instruments found in a symphony orchestra’s brass section, is made up of musicians from the Brevard, Hendersonville, Asheville and Greenville, S.C., areas. Many perform or have performed with professional orchestras and bands or teach at universities and schools in the region. Hairston, who joined the brass ensemble as conductor earlier this season, is currently director of bands at Brevard College.