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Brass Kamarades played thursday jeudi April 17th at the Relais Gouverneurs Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu fotr the "Colloque Femmes et Développement Local" organizedby the Centre Local de Développement (CLD) du Haut-Richelieu.
Brass Kamarades celebrated with the volunteers of the Fondation Santé for its 25th anniversary and even added the luxury of having a percussionist to enliven the evening. To do that, we asked Claude Roy, a solid percussionist from the area and music teacher at the École Secondaire Beaulieu. He added his personal touch to make the event an unforgetable one for the guests.
This anniversary event took place at the Pacini Restaurant of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and our hosts Luc and Pascal were very tuned to their guests' needs as usual, which makes their restaurant one of the best, if not the best success story of the franchise.
You can look at the newly added pictures here... and a nice appreciation letter form the executive of the Fondation
Brass Kamarades, which waited 7 years instead of 6 as mentionned earlier came to the Café Concert that took place last january 20th with a firm intention of having fun on the stage and that's just what happened.
The concert hall which can seat 115 people was filled with 140 and many of them took turn to give everybody a chance to sit down for a while. The morning program had a good variety of pieces that was unanimously adequate. The ambiance and the chemistry between the audience and the musicians set the mood early in the concert. Claude was himself with his usual humor that got the public's attention, even if he was the only one who did not have any presentation to make ; Michel was on fire with his usual extras (inside joke...) ; Guylaine showed us that she was as much at ease talking to the audience than playing her trumpet; Denis Bellemare was again the one that spoke the most (he must be compensating for something...) and I introduced only 2 pieces, leaving all the work to the young and eager.
There was a lot of known faces in the audience and many came to congratulate us after our performance. There was even a few regulars that flattered us by telling us that we were the best group they had heard so far at this concert series.
Here's a positive comment posted on the blog of Denis Roy that attended our concert :
- "So yesterday, I took the opportunity to attend the concert of the « Brass Kamarades » brass quintet that was playing at the St-Luc sector's library where I spent a delicious moment."
(Free translation by Denis Desnoyers)
Back again 6 years later, Brass Kamarades will be the featured group at the Café Concert held at the Saint-Luc librairy in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on January 20th 2008 from 11h00 till noon, followed by a get together where you will able to have a little chat with the musician of the brass quintet. It's a free concert without intermission and there is only 150 places available with no reserved seats. The doors will open at 10:30 AM so arrive early in order to have a good seat.
Brass Kamarades brass quintet was well in evidence in the October 10th 2007 edition of the Canada Français weekly french newspaper. It's on the first page of the "Weekend" section of the paper that the suscribers got a good glimpse of the quintet and maybe discover it. In thei article penned by the cultural journalistMichel Phaneuf accompanied with pictures by photographer Rémy Boily, the article gave the highlights of the brass quintet's history. You can read the french article by clicking on the following link.
That's it, it's done, we just passed on televivion this morning on TQS during the Y'a Plein d'soleil program and, I don't want to brag but we did an excellent performance and the studio sound take was great. The web site statistics are going up the roof today.
You can also visit our links page, I just added a new link from a friend's website.
We just finished our last summer contract. A wedding at "Les Bergeries de L'Acadie" for a beautiful young couple in a beautiful countryside setting.
We also added new pictures on our photo page but we are missing a lot of pictures from this summer's jobs. If you have some that you want to share with the rest of the world, do not hesitate to contact us here.
Brass Kamarades had another busy summer with the wedding of Pascale and Didier at the St-Athanase church on July 28th where the music for the ceremony was played by about 30 members of the Choeur du Richelieu accompanied by their pianist on the organ under the baton of Mr Gilles Roy and the violins of the Poupart family, namely Christian Poupart, his wife Claire Lachance and their youngest daughter Andréanne Poupart. The day went on with cocktail music on the premises of the Manoir Christie within walking distance of the church. For the meal ambiance, our good friend Pierre-Armand Tremblay had hired the services of the excellent Jocelyn Lapointe on trumpet.
We then played on August 4th for the wedding of Mélanie et Alexandre at the L'Acadie church and it was again a success for this former clarinet player of the Cercle Philharmonique de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
Then came the time for our Guylaine to tie the knot with Jean-François on September 1st on the enchanting site of the Fort Saint-Jean Campus. Guylaine being quite busy that day, we had to call upon an old friend, a trumpet player and music teacher Mario Charbonneau who has a solid reputation in the region to replace her, which he did with brio. A very special thank you Mario. You also allowed us to recall nice souvenirs because it had been a long while since we played together.
To continue this beautiful summer, we were invited once again to be the featured group for the taping of the TV program "Y'a Plein d'soleil" on September 15th for the episode that will air on Sunday October 14th from 11AM till noon on TQS and will rerun on the following Wednesday from at 2PM. Just like the last time, we were like kids in a candy store in the studio and the cast and crew of this dynamic program was, like always very friendly and humorous. Thanks again to Louis-Paul Allard, Tex Lecor, Roger Joubert and France Proteau pour everything. We had our families in tow for the recording and they had a ball as well.
We had a busy spring with a wedding at the Repentigny church for a couple of teachers from the polyvalente Mgr Richard followed by a reception at an ancestral house in L'Assomption where the cocktail was given outside while we played under a nice pergola.
The défi du Général Roméo Dallaire to profit both the Fort Saint-Jean Museum and the Haut-Richelieu Museum was, again this year a monstrous success with a surprise visit of a "Leopard" armored vehicle (nicknamed "monster" by the Afghan people )of tha Canadian Armed Forces which came directly from the ValCartier base for the event. This mean machine acted as a magnet with the kids and the kids at heart attending. The ambiance music was much appreciated.
The wedding at L'Auberge Les Trois Tilleuls was a real success. With the sound carrying so much on the water, passing boats were stopping to listen to the music coming from the brass quintet.
We also had a surprise contract for a private brunch given for a triple 50th birthday on Father's Day at the Club de golf de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu which were relatives of Michel Hébert, our trumpet player. A nice morning of souvenirs under the sound of a nice ambiance music appreciated by all.
And finally, our fifth prom night for the Polyvalente Mgr Richard of Verdun. We created an ambiance typical of this sort of venue and the crowd jouned us for our rendition of the now famous "Saint's Hallelujah" written for our fetish group, Canadian Brass. Our pleasant evening ended with a fabulous meal at the Restaurant Le Castillon of the Hilton Bonaventure de Montréal where we were, once again, treated like kings with one of the warmest service and a menu that some well renown places in Montreal could envy. A special thanks to our waiter Antonio for his anecdotes and his genuine frankness, he was a breath of fresh air. We only regret that we had forgotten our camera to immortalize the occasion with our hosts.
It's finaly here !!! We added a page for the music clips. You can now listen to us by clicking on the music button on the menu bar. Enjoy !
This is a news flash, another member of our brass quintet is getting married this year. Our one and only member of the opposite gender, namely Guylaine, will tie the knot this coming September 1st with her boyfriend Jean-François. We will be playing at the wedding ceremony only and Guylaine's substitute trumpet player is yet to be confirmed.
The wedding was great, everybody loved the music and Marcel-André, despite all his fears, did a very decent job in replacing Claude on the trombone. Pictures will follow as promised.
D day is almost there. Claude Archambault and Karine Bernier are getting married on February 3rd and Brass Kamarades brass quintet is preparing for the venue. To replace Claude, the brass quintet acquired the services of his good friend Marcel-André Boulais who, I think,is more nervous than the groom to be just thinking about playing with us. And of course we're capitalizing on it to add extra pressure. What are friends for?...Marcel-André wants his picture taken with us for posterity and I assure you that it will be posted on the site along with all the wedding pictures. Stay tuned and I promise you a special page just for the event.
New pictures are in from our summer contracts, you can go and check them out at our "Gallery" page which changed to keep you from having to scroll down to the bottom of the page all the time.
Here it is at last, the page that gives you the bios of the founding members of Brass Kamarades.
A site is never finished, so pay us another visit soon because we're working on more content. Soon to come is a new page for audio clips so you can listen to our music before taking a decision on hiring us. We also want to put newspaper clips and articles on a different page and at the same time allow you to add your comments about Brass Kamarades. We also want to add a subpage to the "Members" page to include the bios of former musicians of the group without whom, the brass quintet would not be here to entertain you. So consider it a call for André Lessard, Paul Defour and Claude Jean.
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