Festival - eGALitarian Brass (12:10pm & 12:35pm)
eGALitarian Brass is a classical quintet by day and a party band by night consisting of Kate Amrine and Melissa Muñoz on Trumpet, Blair Hamrick on french horn, Julie Dombroski on trombone, and Heather Ewer on tuba. eGALitarian Brass is dedicated to performing and commissioning new works by diverse composers and breaking the boundaries of chamber music today. We prioritize performing music by diverse composers and commissioning new repertoire with an emphasis on music by women and non binary composers, who have often been historically underrepresented in brass repertoire. eGALitarian Brass also performs as a party band, collaborating with Shelby Blezinger-McCay on drums; performing pop, jazz, funk, and more. In addition to our performances, we have also presented educational workshops at both Rutgers University and Concept Lab, collaborating with composers on developing new compositions and writing for brass.
eGALitarian Brass has been invited to perform and collaborate with the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, International Women’s Brass Conference, New York Women Composers, and Spectrum’s Female Composers Festival. We have also presented recitals throughout New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey. As a party band, eGALitarian has performed throughout NYC at venues including Rockwood Music Hall, HONK Brass Band Festival, The Sampler, as well as private parties, parades and events.
eGALitarian Brass is extremely passionate about recording new repertoire and bringing high quality recordings of brass chamber music by diverse composers into the public sphere. We recently recorded and released Cait Nishimura’s piece we commissioned “When the Clouds Break” and Zoe Cutler’s “Fanfare for Some Bad Bitches” and have plans to commission and premiere other new works in the future.
eGALitarian Brass has been awarded several grants over the years to fund our performances and commissions and we are so grateful for the support. Most recently in our 2022 season, we are presenting three concerts funded by a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and an LMCC Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone grant. We also performed a concert sponsored by both the Washington Square Park Conservancy and the Music Performance Trust Fund. We have received a Chamber Music America Ensemble Forward grant in 2021, made possible with generous support from the New York Community Trust, to fund a year of coachings with Eric Reed on our repertoire. We were also awarded a 2021 City Artist Corp grant to fund a free public performance as our party band configuration at a women owned bar in Brooklyn. We were selected as a recipient of the 2019 New York Women Composers Seed Grant to premiere a concert of music by New York Women Composers. In 2018 we were awarded a Juilliard Project Grant to create a music video project of Gina Gillie’s Brass Trio staged in various iconic NYC locations. To stay up to date with eGALitarian Brass and all of their projects: please follow the group on social media @egalitarianbrass
