Empire Brass to Perform at UC Irvine : Music: The chamber ensemble will open the Orange County Philharmonic Society's season with the West Coast premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Dance Suite.
A brass ensemble may be a mainstay for any modern orchestra, but on its own, it's one of the less-frequently heard chamber ensembles. Perhaps that's why the Empire Brass is in such demand these days. "It's been a wild 19 years," said tuba player J. Samuel Pilafian, 40, in a telephone conversation from Fresno, where the ensemble performed Monday. He and trumpeter Rolf Smedvig, 38, were original members of the quintet, originally based in New York City.