presidio brass

Hailing from “America’s Finest City”, San Diego, CA, Presidio Brass is a dynamic new force in American brass chamber music. With a unique and exciting repertoire written specifically for the ensemble, the Presidio Brass is committed to providing engaging musical programs, as well as developing close ties to their audiences. During the 2007-2008 concert season, they will set off on a national tour, playing to nearly 50 cities throughout the United States. Members of the ensemble have been seen with major symphony orchestras, including the London Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic; can be heard on soundtracks ranging from video games to major motion pictures; and have been educated at several of America’s finest institutions, including the Juilliard School, Boston Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music and USC. The Presidio Brass is in residence at St. James By-The-Sea Episcopal Church in La Jolla, CA, and their educational program, Musicate the Mind was featured in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Originally from Los Angeles, Ray Nowak is a trumpet player and founding member of the Presidio Brass. He can be seen performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Pacific Symphony, Opera Pacific, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony. Recently, he appeared both on the Tonight Show, with Jay Leno and the Ellen DeGeneres Show, performing with Kanye West. Ray was Assistant Principal Trumpet of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife for 5 years in the Canary Islands, Spain and has also held positions with Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Spain as Assistant Principal Trumpet, Festival della Valle d’Itria, Martina Franca, Italy as Principal, Orquesta de Baja California, Tijuana, Mexico as Principal, the Pacific Music Festival, Sapporo, Japan, and the Royal Band at Huis Ten Bosch, Nagasaki, Japan. Ray maintains a busy private teaching studio and coaches for several school programs, including one of California’s most prestigious middle school programs, South Pointe Middle School.  Ray holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the California State University at Long Beach and a Masters Degree in Music Performance from UCLA.

Born and raised in White Plains, New York, trumpeter Bill Owens joined the Presidio Brass in September of 2006. While attending the Juilliard School in New York, Bill was an active soloist, giving three solo recitals in both Paul and Morse recital halls in Lincoln Center, as well as solo performances in Alice Tully Hall. He has performed the Haydn Concerto with The Yonkers Philharmonic, and has performed both Arutunian’s Concerto and Jeff Curnow’s Concertpiece for Trumpet and Band with the Westchester Wind Symphony. As an orchestral musician, Bill has given performances at BargeMusic, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and with The American Chamber Orchestra, The New England Symphonic Ensemble and The North-Eastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, as well as all of the performing ensembles at The Juilliard School. Besides performing great music, Bill also arranges and interprets great music for his instrument and the Presidio Brass within varying chamber settings. He believes that good music is good music regardless of the instrument it was originally intended for. Bill can be heard on The American Brass Quintet’s newest CD, In Gabriel’s Day.

Mike McCoy , a San Diego native, has been the horn player for the Presidio Brass since its inception. In addition to Presidio, he currently performs in the horn sections of San Diego Symphony, San Diego Opera, Opera Pacific and Pacific Symphony, with whom he recently completed a European tour. Mike has played lead horn with the traveling Broadway shows, Lion King and Tommy and is an active movie and commercial recording artist with notable credits, including Mr.  Jones (1993), Kate & Leopold (2002), and was lead horn on the Everquest game soundtrack. He has played with the Billings Symphony, Riverside Philharmonic, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Nevada Symphony, Mexico City Philharmonic, Orchestra de Baja California, Strauss Symphony of America, toured the West Coast as a soloist with the New England Youth Ensemble, and played lead horn in Carnegie Hall under John Rutter. He has been affiliated with the Millennia Consort, Westwind Brass, Brador Brass and Helix Brass Ensemble. Mike studied at the San Diego School for the Creative and Performing Arts, followed by San Diego State University and Boston Conservatory of Music.

Trombonist Sean Reusch,originally from Tom’s River, NJ, is a founding member of the Presidio Brass. He has performed with the San Diego Symphony, San Diego Opera, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, Pacific Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, New West Symphony, Redlands Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony, and the Riverside Symphony. He is currently a member of the Nittany Trombone Quartet and the Velvet Bones Trombone Quartet and can be heard on Beyond Music and Reference Recordings labels. Sean has performed with artists such as Michael Crawford, Johnny Mathis, Art Garfunkel, David Sanborn, Isaac Hayes, Eddie Daniels, Natalie Cole, and Marvin Hamlisch. As an educator, Sean was the Assistant Band Director at Roosevelt Middle School and Vista High School and has taught trombone at SDSU, Point Loma Nazarene College and Grossmont College. He is currently on faculty at UCSD, Palomar College, and Mira Costa College. Sean maintains a large private teaching studio and many of his students have gone on to study music at prestigious conservatories, including USC, UCLA, San Francisco Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory and Cleveland Institute of Music. Sean holds a Master of Music Degree in Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and is currently working on completing a doctoral degree in performance from UCLA. 

A native of Los Angeles, Scott Sutherland is the tuba player and a founding member of the Presidio Brass. Currently, he serves as principal tuba of the Riverside County Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Opera, and the New West, Long Beach and San Diego Symphonies. As a soloist, he has been featured with the San Diego Symphony, Riverside County and Burbank Philharmonic Orchestras. Scott played on the soundtrack to Pearl Harbor and has appeared with such artists as John Williams, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Jerry Goldsmith, Alf Clausen, Christian McBride and Louis Bellson. Scott is also active as a composer and arranger. His jazz composition, What Were You Thinkin’? was recorded by the USC Elf Jazz Ensemble, directed by Shelly Berg, and his arrangement for solo trumpet and orchestra of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess has been performed by the Pacific Symphony. As an educator, Scott was a brass pedagogy teaching assistant while attending UCLA and spent a year as a certificated school band/orchestra director for the Pasadena Unified School District. He is currently on the faculty at Palomar College and has taught at the Idyllwild Arts Summer Music Festival and the Young Musicians Foundation Summer Orchestra Program. Scott earned his Bachelor of Music degree from USC and a Master of Music degree from UCLA.

Reviews

“Presidio Brass is a shining example of contemporary ensemble performance--crisp, disciplined playing, an engaging demeanor, and an ability to simultaneously honor the past and embrace the future.”  --Randy Hoffman/ Publicity Coordinator and Concert Hour Curator/Palomar College

“The Presidio Brass needs to be heard to be believed. Each one of the members is a virtuoso on his instrument and music flows out of them like a stream.” --John Lorge/Composer

“We wanted to extend a great THANK YOU for the Presidio Brass performance at our school June 7 th, 2006. It was an exciting and enjoyable show, not just for the kids in band, but for all the students who heard it. In fact, three students not in band have now joined, just because they had such a great time listening to you. Our administration was very pleased with the educational content, and my students thoroughly enjoyed the light and entertaining approach mixed with the classical music. The group’s professionalism and understanding of their audience made it one of the best experiences we’ve had with performing groups at the school. We are looking forward to a return performance as soon as possible, and hopefully you can spend even more time with us. Thank you for the inspiration.” --Steve Acciani/Director of Bands/South Pointe Middle School.