Meet Calypsus Brass | Chamber Ensemble

We had the good fortune of connecting with Calypsus Brass and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Calypsus, how does your business help the community?
Our group works directly with the community of emerging composers from diverse backgrounds, the brass community, the academic music community, and the concert-going public. Our upcoming album involves bringing the music to underserved communities in performances around the country as well as showcasing the music on social media, accessible to all. When recording works, Calypsus Brass creates a relationship with composers, helping to build their portfolios while providing advice and coaching on how to write for brass instruments. Calypsus Brass is proud to be the Ensemble-in-Residence for Rising Tide Music Press, a nonprofit dedicated to publishing and promoting the works of Black, Brown, Indigenous and Asian composers in their first ten years of their composing careers.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Our group was born during the COVID-19 pandemic, when two friends (our trombonist, Lauren Rudzinskas and trumpeter Jacquelyn Lankford) decided to try to form a brass quintet made entirely of women who hold doctorate degrees. The group was soon completed with Carrie Blosser (trumpet), Jessica Pearce (horn), and Stephanie Ycaza (tuba). In our first Zoom meeting, we discussed a name for the ensemble. We had a few not-so-serious suggestions that were fun to talk through together. Lauren brought the idea of Calypso, the Greek goddess of the sea known for her enchanting song. We liked the name but thought it would be confusing since Calypso is also a genre of music. So, some mid-meeting googling based on the root of that word got us to Calypsus, which is a related word and also a type of orchid. We all liked the sound of the name, and Lauren immediately saw that the flower image could be used in design and branding. Now when you google “Calypsus” you will see our group’s website as one of the top results! The ease with which we came to this decision was a good preview of how we would go on to work as a group.

All five of us agreed that one of our first priorities would be recording and performing works by composers from historically marginalized backgrounds. First, we began working on projects that could be completed at a distance since we all live in different cities. We put to use the video and audio recording skills that we all had to learn during the pandemic to begin making remote recordings of brass quintet music. We would create a click track and each record ourselves playing along with it, then mix the audio and eventually video together to create a Youtube video. We then teamed up with Rising Tide Music Press to do an online concert as a fundraiser for Lift Music Fund. That was our official debut as a brass quintet, and soon after we became the ensemble-in-residence for Rising Tide Music Press.

Since that concert, which was in August 2021, we have given recitals and masterclasses at McNeese State University, the International Women’s Brass Conference, Eastern Illinois University, and the University of Northern Iowa. The first of those concerts, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, was also the first time that all five of us were together in one place at the same time. Luckily, the group gelled together really well both musically and personally–something that we didn’t know for sure would happen!

Now that we are doing both touring performances and online/remote recordings, we are able to pursue all of our passions and interests. we love discovering the music of new and emerging composers, and building relationships with those composers. Our number one priority is to share and promote new music and the composers who write it. We really enjoy live performance, but we also value the opportunity to create recordings that composers can use to promote their work forever. Our ultimate goal is to keep sharing music with audiences, both in person and online, and to keep educating young musicians.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Several organizations deserve credit for our inspiration and motivation to continue our mission: Diversify the Stand is a nonprofit dedicated to providing accessible educational music by commissioning composers marginalized by race, ethnicity, gender, and orientation. It also happens to be co-founded by one of our trumpet players, so our goals are very much aligned. Rising Tide Music Press is a nonprofit that publishes and promotes the music of BBIA composers. RTMP has welcomed us as an ensemble-in-residence, and has added to our mission by allowing us to record music for their composers. Everyone in our group is also connected in some way to the International Women’s Brass Conference. IWBC has provided resources and opportunities to many brass musicians, and continues to provide us with inspiration and motivation. Finally, we also want to dedicate our shoutout to Melissa Brown, the genius behind the Bold as Brass Podcast. She has been a great supporter of ours, and we love her podcast!

Website: https://www.calypsusbrass.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calypsusbrass/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/calypsusbrass

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbYEEdudwXx7iU1XkijHbBQ

Other: https://donorbox.org/calypsus-brass

Image Credits
Kristen Gale, Blake Kidner, Steve Sang Koh, Lauren Rudzinskas