June 27, 2023

Seraph Brass: The Powerful and Elegant World-Renowned Brass Ensemble: PART 1

Seraph Brass is in its ninth season and began as a group dedicated to "elevating and showcasing the excellence of female brass players and highlighting musicians from marginalized groups both in personnel and in programming." It is a group consisting of five to six core artists, along with a group of guests who also perform with the group. My conversation today was with founder and trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden, trumpeter Raquel Samayoa, hornist Rachel Velvikis, trombonist Victoria Garcia, and tubist Christina Cutts Dougherty. It was very inspiring for me to speak with a group that is so dedicated to its ideals.

Part 1

We begin our conversation with an introduction of the players and what they do when they're not on stage with Seraph Brass. Then Mary speaks about how she founded the group, how the group began to grow, and how the current players joined the group. We end Part 1 with a discussion of the role social media has played in the success of the group, and Vicki's story of how to deal with social media trolls.