For the Miami Valley Today
PIQUA — The Piqua Civic Band blasts off for its concert on Thursday, July 8 at 7 p.m. at Piqua High School’s Hartzell Center for the Performing Arts. The concert, titled “An Adventure in Space and Time,” explores great music from the best science-fiction movies and television shows. The band’s special guest for the evening will be trumpet player, Eric Knorr, performing a classic Herbert L. Clarke solo and “As Time Goes By.” Other selections will include music from “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Back to the Future,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Doctor Who,” “E.T.,” and more.
Knorr is the Artist in Residence in Trumpet in the Department of Music at the University of Dayton. Knorr teaches studio trumpet, directs the UD Trumpet Ensemble, performs with the Faculty Brass Quintet, and teaches several classroom courses within the department: Music, Technology and Culture and the History of American Popular Song. Knorr is the retired Principal Trumpet of the United States Air Force Band of Flight at Wright-Patterson Air Force Baseand served in the same role with the USAF Heartland of America Band at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. While stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB, he founded and led Prism Brass, a seventeen-member brass group from within the band. Additionally, he led the Wright Brass Quintet for over ten years, to include the first ever USAF brass quintet deployment to support Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
As an orchestral musician, Knorr is a regular substitute within the trumpet section of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, is the Principal Trumpet with the Bach Society of Dayton and is a frequent substitute with the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras. His other professional orchestral credits include the Cleveland Pops, Omaha Symphony, Akron Symphony, Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, Springfield Symphony, Lima Symphony, Butler Philharmonic, Ohio Light Opera Orchestra, Blue Ash Symphony, Bach Ensemble of St. Thomas in Cincinnati and Musica Sacra. Equally at home in commercial, jazz and rock settings, he has performed with Dayton Jazz Orchestra, the Jazz Central Big Band and is the lead trumpet in the band Trey Stone and the Ringers. As a free-lance musician with the Victoria Theater Association, he has performed for the national touring productions of Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Motown, In The Heights, Chicago, Beautiful, and Book of Mormon.
Knorr is the founder of Oakwood Brass, the brass group in residence at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Oakwood Brass has been featured multiple times on the Bach Society of Dayton concert series as well as the Sanctuary Series at High St. UMC in Springfield, the Troy-Hayner Center concert series and has performed at a WDPR fundraiser featuring violinist Rachel Barton-Pine at the Dayton Art Institute. He has also performed in the Carillon Brass and DPO Chamber Trio; two ensembles that perform educational outreach for the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance. Teaming up with Kathryn Maresca, organist and choir director at historic St. Mary’s Church in Dayton, they will soon be releasing two compact disc recordings; one of new and lesser-known works for trumpet and organ and one entitled “Christmas at St. Mary’s.” In addition to his teaching and performance duties, he is the Orchestra Librarian for the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra.
Admission to the concert is free, and all are invited to attend. For more information, please visit the Piqua Civic Band’s web site at piquacivicband.weebly.com or like “The Piqua Civic Band” on Facebook.
