On Friday, February 28, Music at St. Anne’s presented a harmonious treat in Port Richmond with New City Brass—a brass quintet performing an eclectic variety of tunes spanning several centuries. The show began just after 7:30 at St. Anne Church on 2328 E. Lehigh Ave and was open to all community members.

Now in its second year, Music at St. Anne’s is a concert series that’s goal is to engage the community by bringing classical music into the neighborhood. The relaxed atmosphere is much different than what you would expect from a typical concert-going experience downtown— the musicians are relaxed and in jeans, picture taking is permitted and conversation with the performers is suggested.

“At most concert experiences, there’s a kind of barrier between the audience and performers,” said Seth Hanes, the band’s French horn player. “You would never get to go to the Kimmel Center and have a conversation with one of the musicians— you may get them to sign an autograph for one second but there’s very little interaction. So that’s something we try to disband with these performances.”

Made up of local, budding talent from Philadelphia, New City Brass’ members are Hanes, Nozomi Immamura on trumpet, Matthew Gatti on tuba, Sam Armstrong on trombone, and Steven Franklin on trumpet.

“New City Brass is a group of musicians who are in college or just graduated college and they are positively phenomenal,” said Nick Pignataro, the program’s music director, before the show. “We’re here because of the generous support of our community members, so whatever you want, we’ll give you.”

The quintet announced the program as they went, opening with a short suite from the Leonard Bernstein classic West Side Story that featured favorites like “Maria” and “I Feel Pretty.” After the selection, the band played a Bach cantata before switching to Victor Ewold’s “Quintet 1, Movements 3 & 5.” The classical music then began to shift toward contemporary, as the audience snapped along to the classic “Pink Panther” theme before nodding into the dreamy scales of the old jazz standard “Stardust.” New City Brass then broke into the timeless Beatles hit “When I’m Sixty Four,” and then “As Time Goes By” from the Hollywood masterpiece, Casablanca. The concert ended with the traditional gospel hymn, “This Little Light of Mine.” The closer featured the high-pitched piccolo trumpet and had the crowd tapping their feet along with the New Orleans sound.

“It felt good; I enjoyed playing in this space,” said Steven Franklin, a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, after the concert was over. “At first I thought that it would be difficult getting the clarity with such a big room that echoes a lot, but as we got going it felt good.”

Not only were the musicians pleased with how they played, they were extremely pleased with what they played. After each song you could see a sincere smile crack across each of the five performer’s faces.

“You don’t really get to do too many concerts where you literally just get to play whatever you want—it’s extremely rare that the performers get to pick the program, especially while you’re in school when you’re told what to play and rehearse by a coach,” said Hanes, who in addition to playing is also the assistant music director of the program. “It’s all fun stuff to play, it’s whatever we wanted to play and also what we feel would resonate with everyone in the audience. So we tried to hit something that everyone can latch onto—whether that’s Bach or the Beatles, take your pick.”

The audience also seemed to respond really well to the show, providing plenty of applause and appreciation as the night went on. Chris Cassizzi was one member of the audience who really enjoyed his time.

“It shows their passion for their art, and I wish that we would have had things like this when I was growing up—I’m a local boy, Mother of Divine Grace,” Cassizzi said. “I think the fact that they give up their time, energy and talent to this endeavor and reaching out into the community, I can’t thank them enough. I feel like I am in awe of being here in their presence.”

“I think they are great.  I enjoy every concert, I don’t miss them ever,” said Tom Cawley, another audience member. “I think it’s great that they do it. I know that they are aren’t making much and that’s a sacrifice they make, but you have to start somewhere.”

After the show, Pignataro was impressed with his band and happy with how the audience reacted to the performance.

“I thought it went really well. I always think the brass quintet has this quality that I always compare to the organ—with the tuba it starts really low and vibrates the building, but then vibrates your soul. Then you have all these other instruments adding these colors. I just think that the brass quintet is like the human voice, it just meets you on a personal level,” he said. “But I think they did great tonight, first of all they are just ridiculous musicians. Second of all they know how to program to engage—they really know how to engage the community.”

Music at St. Anne’s will continue to perform concerts similar to this one throughout the year. Each concert is made possible due to donations to the group from the Friends of St. Anne’s music. You can find out more about the program at www.musicatstannes.net or you can ‘Like’ the group on Facebook.