STUDENTS TAKE CENTER STAGE WITH THE KING’S BRASS

BY PATTI SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICK COOPER

Jacob Parauka never sang in front of thousands of people before he took the stage as an 8th-grader singing alongside area choir students to the tune of a professional brass ensemble, The King’s Brass. Standing in the risers, trumpet and trombone players suddenly appeared and played their instruments among the students.

“I didn’t expect it. There were people popping out from all these different places. It was really cool,” says Jacob, who is now 17 and in the 11th grade. As a choir student, Jacob is used to the accompaniment of a pianist, but, after that night, he learned he prefers the brilliance of resonating brass.

Jacob is one of about 100 local young singers and brass players who recently performed alongside The King’s Brass, a professional brass ensemble made up of brass, keyboard, and percussion players from all over the United States. They present a contemporary spin on classic hymns. The concert, held at Panama City’s Marina Civic Center, is one of more than 100 shows The King’s Brass performs every holiday season. Each one of them includes local students. After weeks of intense rehearsing, students take center stage with the pros who have been perfecting their craft for years. “It’s such a great experience to be able to sing with people that are well trained to make beautiful music. That’s one of the main things that prompted me to do this concert again,” Jacob says.

Gigi Zimmerman, vice president of the Panama City Music Association, explains the purpose of involving students in these elite performances is to inspire young talent to pursue their dreams of becoming professionals themselves. Zimmerman is part of the PCMA board that recruited The King’s Brass to come to Panama City. She works with high school band teachers in Bay County to find talented music students who are eager to work hard and have the desire to perform.

Choir and band students recruited to play with King’s Brass must practice on their own until the day of the concert. The PCMA purchases the music from The King’s Brass when it is released several weeks before the concert. The students learn it and come together for a 30-minute rehearsal with the band before the show.

The process for The King’s Brass players is similar. The group is made up of three trumpets, three trombones, a tuba, a keyboard and percussion players who come from places such as Colorado, Missouri, Connecticut, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

They practice independently and then meet for five days in Indianapolis where they spend long days in rehearsal, says Tim Zimmerman, who founded The King’s Brass 38 years ago.

“When we come out of there, we have to sound like we’ve been playing together for 38 years,” says Zimmerman, who is not related to Gigi. He adds that most of the time he is impressed by students’ ability to learn the pieces well.

Zimmerman created The King’s Brass when he was teaching middle school. He had a lot of trouble getting his 13 trumpet students to practice, so he decided to put the pressure on by booking a performance at a local church. “After that performance, all these churches started calling to ask if we could do a concert for them,” says Zimmerman.

The tuba player, John Leibensperger, was in 8th grade when The King’s Brass came to his Pennsylvania town. Now an Artist Diploma candidate and teaching assistant in the Yale University School of Music in New Haven, Connecticut, John plays professionally with King’s Brass. The band has performed original arrangements as heard on their eight CDs every Christmas season for the last 20 years. Zimmerman says King’s Brass features local students in each of its more than 100 Christmas concerts every year because he wants to encourage the next generation of brass players.

Trumpet player Cody Carpenter, 18, was a freshman when King’s Brass last came to Panama City. “I had never really done anything like that before, and I was scared,” he recalls. “A lot of my friends did it and had fun, so I decided to take the opportunity.” He was still nervous, but he’s glad he did the show. “I just love making music. Performing gives you the best feeling you could ever imagine,” says Cody, who recently started playing professionally with the Panama City Pops orchestra. He plans to study music education and teach in some capacity as well as continue to play professionally throughout his career.

Andrew Tinch, 15, has been playing trumpet since he was 7 years old, but never had played in front of a big crowd before the King’s Brass concert. Getting to play with Tim Zimmerman was exciting for the young performer. “He’s a stellar trumpet player and his arrangements are amazing,” says Andrew, who also plays classical and jazz guitar and composes music. “I like playing the trumpet because it is very versatile. We can play really loud, and that’s what we usually do. The feeling of hitting a good note on the lips is really good,” Andrew says.

Matt Kaminskas teaches Cody, Andrew, and a third trumpet player, Bryan Holmes, who also played for King’s Brass. Matt serves on the board for the Panama City Music Association and likes to expose his students to all kinds of performance opportunities because they open doors. Matt has played trombone alongside King’s Brass, campaigning presidents, astronauts, and governors.

“All because I was playing something on the trombone,” Matt says. “The opportunities extend beyond these four walls of the high school band room.”

 

[author image=”https://www.panamacityliving.com/media/2014/07/Patti-Smith.jpg” ]Patti Smith is an award-winning professional writer and editor with more than 25 years experience in U.S. markets including Metropolitan areas of Connecticut, California, Indiana, Kentucky and Florida. She currently writes columns, features and faith testimonies for local and national publications. She believes everyone has a story to tell and that others’ lives may be changed or enriched by reading it. She is married to a devoted husband, mother to three amazing children and grandmother to one precious grandchild.[/author]