Watch this space for all the latest Washington Symphonic Brass information and announcements.


  • WSB has had a busy July! On Independence Day, five members of the group joined organists Scott Dettra and Jeremy Filsell at the National Cathedral with a rousing concert as awe-inspiring as the Capital fireworks seen that evening. Later in the month, we were honored to perform in the Opening Convocation for the American Guild of Organists Convention at the Washington National Cathedral. Finally, the WSB gave a concert in the beautiful, glass canopied, Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The concert featured the music of John Williams in celebration of a new exhibit of Norman Rockwell works on loan from the private collections of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. We had a very large and enthusiastic crowd of music and art lovers!
  • Check out Member News for individual WSB members' summer performance highlights and their own upcoming events!
  • Our newest CD "The Edge" is now available. Recorded in 2008, it is sure to make your hair stand on end with its whiplash tempos and brilliant sound!
  • Read the great review from our performance for the 1200+ member International Trumpet Guild in May, 2009. Read here. We performed for their conference in May, 2007 as well.
  • Our fourth CD "Burana in Brass" was released on Warner Classics. This is the first major label distribution deal ever by a brass ensemble and we've been very excited about it. We have gotten some great reviews from Gramophone and American Record Guide on this recording, so if you don't have it yet, you need it.
  • We made another recording with Michael McCarthy and the National Cathedral Choir in June which will be released this December. Look for us on their newest Christmas recording.
  • Members of the WSB will have their solo CD's available for purchase at our concerts. Among them, Phil Snedecor has a new CD entitled "The Lyrical Trumpet" out on Summit Records. Marty Hackleman and Chris Gekker will have an assortment of their CDs avaliable as well.
  • The WSB had a great story in the International Musician reprinted below:

"Not Your Average Brass Ensemble"


Phil Snedecor of Locals 40-543 (Baltimore, MD), 161-710 (Washington, DC), and 269 (Harrisburg, PA) likes to think outside the box. He is the manager of the Washington Symphonic Brass (WSB), a group of 17 brass and percussion players led and co-founded by himself and Milton Stevens, also a member of Local 161-710. This not-for-profit ensemble is putting a twist on the type of music traditionally played by brass ensembles.
In 2002, the WSB started its own self-promoted concert series in the D.C. area during which it presents nine concerts a year. This year's concerts include "WSB in the 50s" (that's the 1750s, 1850s, and 1950s), "WSB at the Movies," and "Brass at the Ballet." Yes, brass at the ballet.
" We try to give our audiences things they wouldn't normally expect from brass players," Snedecor says. As for the "Brass at the Ballet" concert, he says that, although people do not generally associate the two, there is great brass music in ballet.
As the arranger, Snedecor uses these brass sections and also arranges the string portions for the brass. "I want audiences to say, 'Wow, I didn't think brass could do that'," he says.
Snedecor boasts that the members of the WSB are some of the best brass players ever assembled, and he believes they can play anything. "Playing is so much more than playing with your own individual instrument," he says, adding that the thrill for him is performing with a group of such talented musicians.
The ensemble was formed in 1993. Back then, the WSB would perform free concerts and as guest artists with the National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and The Philadelphia Orchestra. But the WSB has come a long way, thanks to the inception of the concert series, as well as the release of four albums. The WSB's latest release--Voices of Brass--features songs from Carmina Burana. Selections from all its albums can be heard at www.wsbrass.com.
Snedecor has been a member of the Federation since he was a freshman at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and has, over the years, been a member of six locals. He says that he works very hard to pay union wages and AFM pension on their concert series, which he has done since the beginning. The AFM pension plan is something he feels very strongly about. "Some musicians don't think about their future," he says. "Even if they don't care, I do."
Funding the brass ensemble is not without its challenges, admits Snedecor. Currently, he pays his musicians scale, but would like to pay them more. "I think the musicians are worth a lot. I want to pay them what they're worth," he says.
One of the ways Snedecor plans to increase revenue is by expanding to larger venues and widening his audience. Currently, the WSB plays in churches and similar venues, but he's set his sights on The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. "We want to give the audience something so unusual that they want us to keep coming back," Snedecor says. "This kind of music making is the wave of the future."


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