The Cumberland County Playhouse is pleased to host the Southern Stars Symphonic Brass (SSSB) for a Mainstage Concert on Saturday, May 26, 2018 at 7:30pm. This concert is themed as Hot Brass and Cool Ballads and will feature big band swing, dixieland, and jazz stylings. In addition to the selections by the SSSB, four members of the Playhouse’s resident acting company will be guest vocalists with the SSSB during the concert (Jason Ross, Hannah Hayes, Ross & Jess Griffin).

The Southern Stars Brass Band is celebrating its 10th season as a professional ensemble of instrumental musicians who rehearse and perform a series of annual concerts in Crossville, which is their geographic home. The ensemble is a 30-member group comprised of 27 brass instrumentalists and 3 percussionists. The brass instruments used are cornets, alto horns, flugelhorn, baritones, euphoniums, trombones, and tubas, and the percussionists play a full array of xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, tympani, trap set, and other miscellaneous percussion equipment. The musicians are from Nashville, Murfreesboro, Cookeville, Crossville, Knoxville, and SE Kentucky and are comprised of university music faculty, secondary music educators, and other career fields who are also outstanding musicians. The group’s music director is Dr. Steven Sudduth, who is head of bands at the University of the Cumberland in Wilmington, KY.    

The brass band is nationally recognized as one of the premier brass bands in North America, and have produced two CDs and a DVD, which will be available to purchase at this concert. They have been honored to be invited to perform on two occasions at the prestigious Great American Brass Band Festival where they have received standing ovations from the estimated 7,500 people in attendance. Their concerts typically cover a wide range of music styles including: Patriotic, marches, Broadway, movie and tv themes, sacred, overtures and orchestral transcriptions, and big band swing.

The May 26 concert will focus on the genres of big band swing, dixieland and jazz stylings and will include the following selections: Duke Ellington’s Caravan, Hannah Hayes will sing I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo a la Turk, Chattanooga Choo Choo, Ross & Jess Griffen wll provide vocals for Gershwin’s Cheek to Cheek, Chuck Mangione’s hit – Children of Sanchez, That’s a Plenty, Georgia on My Mind – flugelhorn solo by TTU jazz professor Chris McCormick, Jason Ross will sing Luck Be a Lady from the musical “Guys and Dolls,” Miller Magic – a medley of Glen Miller tunes, Just a Closer Walk With Thee, and a rousing finale of the big band hit – Sing, Sing, Sing. As an extra special treat, Alex Wilborn (a 2017 graduate of TTU, and currently in NYC at the Julliard School of Music’s grad program, and the former principal cornetist with the SSSB) will be back to perform a technical cornet solo of the selection – Debutante.

Tickets are available at the CCP box office (phone: 931-484-5000) or can be purchased online at the CCP website. The tickets are an outstanding bargain at $15 and sales have been brisk so don’t wait too long to secure your seats. Take this opportunity to hear this outstanding group perform a concert that will be memorable for their unique brand of “Premium Entertainment.”