Friday night’s Harker Concert Series event featuring Seraph Brass closed out the 2025-26 season with unique interpretations of longtime favorites and modern pieces.
Self-described as an ensemble “with a mission to showcase the excellence of women brass players and highlight musicians from marginalized groups,” they strode out of the gate with the prelude to Grieg’s Holberg Suite, arranged for the quintet by Jeff Luke. Their unique configuration was well-suited to the piece’s signature gallop, as was its reverent melody, announcing the arrival of essayist and author Ludvig Holberg, to whom the suite pays homage.
They continued with a selection from Kevin Day’s “Fantasia III,” introduced by French hornist Layan Atieh as piece that invited people to find beauty “even in the chords that feel crunchy,” referring to the piece’s deft use of mournful, disharmonic chords.
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Amidst the lesser-known selections from the night’s program were plenty of crowd pleasers, such as their rendition of a trio of pieces from Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” a highlight of which was the nostalgic strains of “Summertime,” provided by Morgen Low flugelhorn. This also characterized their post-intermission set, which included a series of pieces from “West Side Story,” including a rousing version of “America.”
Displaying their penchant for diversity in a night that included Broadway standards, modern experiments and a tango by Corrado Maria Saglietti, the group rewarded the crowd’s enthusiasm with an encore performance of Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For,” which appeared on the soundtrack to the 2023 film, “Barbie.”
