Brilliance of Brass
Joy, Radiance, and Majesty
Sunday, December 7, 2025
Phoenix Brass Collective
Directed by Dr. Jeff Quamo
Presented by Arizona Philharmonic
Program notes ©2025 by J. Michael Allsen
For this festive holiday program, we welcome maestro Dr. Jeff Quamo and the Phoenix Brass Collective. Arizona Philharmonic’s principal trumpet, Joshua Haake, is a cofounder of this group, and two seated AZ Phil members join the group this evening, second trumpet Stephen Martin, and principal timpanist Maria Flurry. Phoenix Brass Collective member French hornist Martha Sharpe is also a regular on AZ Phil’s stage.
The program includes a series of enjoyable arrangements of Christmas carols and Holiday songs by Roger Harvey, Michael Allen, Brian Sadler, Mark Freeh, and Christopher Mowat, and two colorful, original compositions by Anthony DiLorenzo.
O Come, All Ye Faithful • Ding Dong Merrily on High • Shepherd’s Pipe Carol
John Rutter, 2012
The origin of the familiar O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste fidelis) was long a mystery. This hymn was known from at least the middle of the 18th century in both its original Latin and in several English translations. The hymn was attributed to medieval poets, various Portuguese and English writers—and even Handel—but the true author was not discovered until the 1940s: an 18th-century English Catholic named John Francis Wade. Wade fled religious persecution in England and spent most of his career in Flanders and France, selling Catholic service books. His Latin hymn Adeste fidelis was written sometime in the early 1740s. There have been many English translations, but the familiar English version was written by Francis Oakley in 1906 for The English Hymnal. Though hymn-writer George Ratcliffe Woodward penned the words to Ding Dong Merrily on High in 1924, he searched much earlier for the melody: it was originally a tune included in a 16th-century dance manual, Thoinot Arbeau’s Orchesographie (1588) intended to be played with a circle-dance called the bransle. (Note: in case you were wondering about Thoinot Arbeau’s unusual name, it is actually an anagram: a pseudonym for the actual writer, Jehan Tabouret, a 68-year-old French priest!) Englishman John Rutter’s distinctive musical style, together with his skill as choral conductor have made him a familiar name in the world of choral music. His Shepherd’s Pipe Carol, written while he was in school in the early 1970s, is one of the most popular of his many Christmas carols. Its melody is a jazzy syncopated tune that accompanies a host of people “on the way to Bethlehem.”
Sussex Mummer’s Carol • Sussex Carol • Coventry Carol
Ralph Vaughan Williams, c. 1920
The next two carols have their roots in the lush countryside of the English county of Sussex, on the coast of the English channel, south of London. The Sussex Mummer’s Carol is tied to the ancient English tradition of mummers: bands of masked and elaborately costumed singers who serenaded homes during the holiday season. This tune was originally collected in Sussex in 1881 by Lucy Broadwood. It was popularized in 1905 in an arrangement by Percy Grainger. This lush, lyrical tune is a great favorite of British brass bands. The Sussex Carol (On Christmas Night All Christians Sing) is much better-known in this country. Its text was first published in 1684 by an Irish bishop, Luke Waddinge, though it is possible that Waddinge merely printed a text already in circulation. The carol was certainly part of the folk tradition in Britain, and it circulated with a few different melodies. The now-universal tune associated with the Sussex Carol was transcribed in about 1900 by the English song-collector Cecil Sharp and his student Ralph Vaughan Williams. Vaughan Williams heard this melody from a woman in Sussex, and he published it as the Sussex Carol in 1919. The anonymous Coventry Carol was written in 16th-century England. It was originally part of a “mystery play”—a religious play staged by local trade guilds in the city of Coventry. Mystery plays often included musical interludes, and The Coventry Carol was originally part of a play dramatizing the nativity story from the Gospel of Matthew. It begins as a soothing lullaby.
Gabriel’s Message • Ríu, ríu, chíu
The Annunciation by Johann Christian Schröder, c. 1690
The traditional Basque carol Gabriel’s Message is based upon a much earlier Latin chant. The avid folksong collector, novelist, and Anglican priest Sabine Baring-Gould published the English translation heard here in the early 20th century. This carol is a gentle retelling of the Annunciation story: the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Next is the lively 16th-century villancico (carol) Ríu, ríu, chíu. Its refrain may refer to a traditional call of Catalan shepherds as they guard their flocks. This Christmas song has been attributed to Matteo Flecha, a Catalan composer who served in several Spanish and Mexican churches. It is among the most well-known works of the Spanish Renaissance: including a 1967 recording by the Monkees!
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman, 2022
Director Tim Burtons’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) is certainly one of the most imaginative—and creepiest—holiday movies ever. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who has grown bored with the routine of scaring the wits out of people once a year. Jack stumbles on Christmas Town, and, without ever actually understanding anything about Christmas, engineers a hostile takeover by the creepy forces of Halloween. No worries—it all works out well in the end: Jack saves Santa and Christmas itself, finds true love, and brings a little snowy Christmas to Halloween Town. The score was by Danny Elfman, who also provided the singing voice for Jack. Elfman has worked with Burton on 18 films to date and they share a distinctly “weird” (as Elfman puts it) aesthetic. The medley heard here brings together several of Nightmare’s spooky moments.
Baltazar, a King’s Journey
Anthony DiLorenzo
Anthony DiLorenzo
Trumpeter and composer Anthony DiLorenzo trained at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute and later worked with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Center. As a performer, he has appeared as a trumpet soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, and New York Philharmonic, and has held positions with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New World Symphony, Santa Fe Opera, and Utah Symphony. Also active in chamber music, DiLorenzo had a long tenure with the City Center Brass Quintet, one of America’s leading brass ensembles. As a composer, he has extensive television and film credits and has won an Emmy award for his television work. His concert music has been performed by several major orchestras and chamber ensembles across the country. DiLorenzo composed Baltazar, a King’s Journey in 2002, for the Carmel Music Society, to celebrate the Spanish heritage of the city of Monterey California. It is inspired by one of the three biblical wise men who follow a star to Bethlehem to honor the newborn Jesus. It opens with a forceful fanfare and launches into sweeping music. After a drum interlude, the low brass introduce a livelier new theme. The final section begins with a slow, trudging processional that accelerates—as if the wise men are excitedly reaching the end of their journey—before a joyous, closing fanfare.
Setting the Trap of Home Alone
John Williams
John Williams, 2024
Home Alone was the hit of the holiday season in 1990. This movie, pitting young Kevin (Macauley Culkin) against a pair of bumbling burglars was an enjoyable blend of sentimentality and slapstick nastiness. The eminent film composer John Williams wrote music for Home Alone, and his score features just the right mixture of naïve sweetness and naughtiness. Williams’s Setting the Trap accompanies an on-screen montage of the ever-resourceful Kevin planting a whole series of nasty booby traps around his house for the burglars. This music is generally upbeat, with witty allusions to Christmas tunes and other themes from the film score, though there is always an undertone of threat and worry.
White Christmas
Irving Berlin, 1948
In that invaluable musicological resource The Guinness Book of World Records, White Christmas by Irving Berlin long held the title of largest-selling record in history. (It was not edged out until 1997, when Elton John’s Goodbye English Rose—his tribute to Princess Diana—topped the charts.) The song was introduced in 1942, when millions of war-weary Americans heard Bing Crosby croon it for the first time in the movie Holiday Inn. It won an Academy Award, and Crosby’s hit recording made him a wealthy man…and made Irving Berlin an even wealthier man! Berlin, who was never a particularly modest man, reportedly told his secretary that “Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it’s the best one anybody ever wrote.”
The Toymaker
Anthony DiLorenzo
Statue of Daedalus
Anthony DiLorenzo describes his The Toymaker as a suite in three movements that “imagines three episodes in the life of the mythical Greek inventor Daedalus [best known for being the father of Icarus] and his introduction to the mysterious Saint Nicholas.” He provides the following note:
The Toymaker tells a tale of St. Nicholas and his encounter with the mythical and wondrous inventor Daedalus. This music is far from your typical holiday fluff. The Toymaker has a style similar to Prokofiev and carries an edge and flare that propels the audience into the 21st century. The first movement introduces us to Daedalus while the music underscores his latest invention. Atop a high hill on the southern coast of Greece appears a clunky mass of steel, gears, bolts and gizmos, much like a craft out of a Jules Verne novel. Daedalus sets his craft in motion down this hill hurtling out of control towards his captive audience. As the ship started to break apart, or so it seemed, wings sprang out from its sides and the mass of metal soared over all the spectators’ heads as they looked on in awe. The second and third movements develop the relationship with St. Nicholas who later becomes good friends with Daedalus. More miraculous inventions are made until the conclusion of the suite when an amazing flying sled is made for Nicholas.
The opening movement, The Golden Palace, is a perfect musical picture of Daedalus’s clanking, steampunk contraption as it lumbers down the hill, and eventually takes flight. The Magic Clock depicts “a giant magical clock tower, where people, animals, and fantastic creatures make up this magnificent creation.” The music seamlessly blends a whole series of ideas, from twittering trumpets to a broad theme heard near the end. The final movement, The Bells of Greece and St. Nicholas Takes Flight “imagines Daedalus creating a magnificent sled for his friend St. Nicholas to carry presents to all the children he has befriended.” Opening with bell-themes that represent a whole series of amazing gadgets cooked up in the workshop of Daedalus, it ends with a broad theme representing the magical sleigh.
Christmas Song • Festive Cheer
Mel Tormé, 1979
The well-known Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), with all of those cozy wintertime images, was actually written during the roasting heat of a California summer. In his autobiography, Mel Tormé related the story how in July 1945, he drove to the home of his lyricist and collaborator Robert Wells in Toluca Lake. He found the lyrics lying on the piano, and when Wells finally appeared sweating and hot even in shorts and a t-shirt, he told Tormé: “It was so damn hot today, I thought I’d write something to cool myself off. All I could think of was Christmas and cold weather.” Tormé replied: “You know, this just might make a song…” The Christmas Song was written in about 45 minutes later that day. Torme quickly showed the song to his friend Nat Cole, whose 1946 hit recording is now a beloved holiday classic.
The concert ends with Festive Cheer, a bright medley of familiar holiday songs: Sleigh Ride, Jingle Bells, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Program
O Come, All Ye Faithful
John Francis Wade 🇬🇧, arr. Roger Harvey
Ding Dong Merrily on High
Thoinot Arbeau/Ratcliffe 🇫🇷, arr. Roger Harvey
Shepherd’s Pipe Carol
John Rutter 🇬🇧, arr. Roger Harvey
Sussex Mummer’s Carol
Traditional English 🏴, arr. Michael Allen
Sussex Carol
Traditional English 🏴, arr. Roger Harvey
Coventry Carol
Anonymous (16th Century) 🇬🇧, arr. Roger Harvey
Gabriel’s Message
Traditional Basque, arr. Roger Harvey
Riu, riu, chiu
Mateo Flecha 🇪🇸, arr. Roger Harvey
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Danny Elfman 🇺🇸, arr. Brian Sadler
INTERMISSION
Baltazar, a King’s Journey
Anthony DiLorenzo 🇺🇸
Setting the Trap from Home Alone
John Williams 🇺🇸, arr. Brian Sadler
White Christmas
Irving Berlin 🇺🇸, arr. Mark Freeh
The Toymaker
Anthony DiLorenzo 🇺🇸
The Golden Palace
The Magic Clock
The Bells of Greece and St. Nicholas Takes Flight
The Christmas Song
Mel Tormé/Robert Wells 🇺🇸, arr. Christopher Mowat
Festive Cheer
Various, arr. Roger Harvey
Sleigh Ride
Jingle Bells
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
BIOGRAPHIES
Dr. Jeff Quamo, Conductor
Dr. Jeff Quamo
Dr. Jeff Quamo holds a DMA in clarinet performance from Arizona State University, where he studied with Dr. Robert Spring, recipient of the International Clarinet Association’s highest honor. His former teachers include Kenneth Grant (Rochester Philharmonic/Eastman School of Music) and jazz legend Eddie Daniels. He is the director of bands at Chandler High School and director of the Phoenix Brass Collective. He also serves as adjunct faculty at Mesa Community College, and as director of the Scottsdale Concert Band and the Youth Symphony of the Southwest. He has been an educational advocate for chamber music by serving as Chair for the AMEA State Solo & Ensemble Festival since 2016, and is a regular guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. Through his educational efforts, he has been acknowledged by AMEA as a recipient of the O.M. Hartsell Excellence in Teaching Music Award in 2022 and the George C Wilson Leadership / Service Award in 2025.
Dr. Quamo maintains an active professional performing career as a clarinetist with the Symphony of the Southwest and ZAZU West. He has performed with the Arizona Opera, the Phoenix Symphony, and other Valley orchestras. He has performed as a guest soloist with jazz bands, brass bands, and orchestras across the nation. In 2016 he performed on Season 11 of America’s Got Talent with Cinematic Pop. Jeff currently resides in Gilbert with his wife, Jaclyn, and their 5 children.
Musicians
Dr. Jeff Quamo – Conductor
Joshua Haake – Trumpet
Stephen Martin – Trumpet
Juan Rodriguez – Trumpet
Andrew Smith – Trumpet
Martha Sharpe – French Horn
Tom Alongi – French Horn
Jason Malloy – Trombone
Sean Holly – Trombone
Daniel Nakazono – Trombone
Seth Bärtschi – Bass Trombone
Daniel Palma – Tuba
Maria Flurry – Timpani & Percussion
Jake Krejsta – Percussion