True North Brass

Welcome to TrueNorthBrass.com!  We’ve just revamped our website, and we’re pretty excited!

Inspirational musician and coach, Joan Watson, knows how to make dreams come true. Her new story, Finding that Destination, encourages musicians to be creative and use their imaginations when setting clear career goals. The journey towards a successful life starts today (no whining allowed!).  Read the full story here.

Pictures at an Exhibition

Beautifully recorded in June 2011 at ALL-SAINTS’ KINGSWAY on their MAGNIFICENT NEW CASAVANT ORGAN!

Moussorgsky’s PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

arranged for Brass Quintet and Organ by J. Scott Irvine

TRUE NORTH BRASS and Organist, ERIC ROBERTSON

Pictures at an Exhibition CD – $20.00

From here you can check out some of our latest projects, including Scott’s new version of Pictures at an Exhibition by Modeste Moussorgsky, or about Joan’s new website for her successful music coaching business (who wouldn’t want some help from one of Canada’s top brass players?

Pictures at an Exhibition – Projected Release Nov. 1st, 2011

Here’s a fast heads-up to let you know that our latest CD – Pictures at an Exhibition, for Brass and Organ (by our very own J. Scott Irvine) should be released November 1st.  Plenty of time to get your own copy – and extras, to make your Christmas shopping quick and easy!

TNB Joins Health Arts Society of Ontario

True North Brass has become members of the Health Arts Society of Ontario (HASO).  With the understanding that everyone should be able to access music, HASO allows artists to perform for audiences, often in long-term care facilities.

“HASO provides professional arts performances that contribute to the quality of life of people in care. 
Together with its sister societies in BC and Quebec it forms the largest performance arts organisation in Canada dedicated exclusively to people in health care. 
Health Arts Society of Ontario presents performance events in health care sites as ARTSWAY.“

True North Brass is proud to be on the roster with some of the country’s best artists with HASO and ARTSWAY.

Scott Irvine talks about his new version of the epic Pictures at an Exhibition by Modeste Moussorgsky.

View the PDF of Scott’s Score
“Every once and a while, a piece comes along that just catches the public’s imagination and stays there, and Pictures at an Exhibition is definitely high up on that list.  The idea of arranging Pictures is one that has occurred to many composer/arrangers.  At last count, there are over 300 different arrangements.  (And there is even an organization of Pictures enthusiasts [IKVA http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/IKVA] dedicated to keeping track of this sort of thing!)  But I know what you’re thinking!  Yet another arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition? After Maurice Ravel’s masterful orchestral arrangement of 1922, do we really need anything else?  Well, no……. BUT, I’ve always felt that Pictures, being originally a work for solo piano, loses something when some of those keyboard figures are arranged for non-keyboard instruments.  Admittedly, some of Pictures just cries out to be arranged for other musical forces, but there are some movements that I prefer to listen to in the original piano version.  Hence, the use of the organ and its multiple keyboards!  More about this in our next entry.”