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Oakland University Brass Band
Rochester, MI
About
The Oakland University Brass Band, formed in September of 2009, enjoys the distinction of being one of the few collegiate brass bands in the country. The members of the group come from across the state of Michigan, as well as the US and Canada. This past summer, the band was one of only ten brass bands from around the world to perform in the First Division competition at the World Music Contest (WMC) in Kerkrade, Netherlands on July 11, 2026. This competition is literally the Olympics of the band world which occurs once every four years. Among their other international accolades, the band was named the University Section winner of the 2021 Kapitol Cory Online Brass Band Championships. In 2019 and 2018, it swept all three categories of Best March, Best Slow Melody and Best Major Work of the Dublin (Ohio) Festival of Brass. In 2018, adjudicator Steven Mead commented that “it was wonderful to hear such an authentic ‘English’ sound to the ensemble - rich, textured and homogeneous and the performance of Essence of Time in particular was a joy.” In 2015 the band accepted an invitation to travel to England to perform in the Butlin’s National Mineworkers Open Brass Band Festival & Competition. While there, the band was awarded 2nd place in their division and now holds the distinction of being the highest placing American band in the history of the competition. This invitation was extended as a result of having won the First Section of the North American Brass Band Association Championships in 2014 in Grand Rapids, MI. In June of 2015, the band performed at the Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville, Kentucky where it gave three featured concerts.
Musical Director
Kenneth Kroesche
Kenneth Kroesche is the Professor of Trombone, Euphonium and Tuba at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He holds a master's and doctorate of musical arts degree in performance from the University of Michigan, in addition to a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Texas State University. He has appeared as a euphonium soloist with a number of notable ensembles, ranging from the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the U.S. Army Band at the West Point Military Academy. The Washington Post described him as "an expert on the instrument." As an orchestral musician, he is the principal trombonist of the Oakland Symphony Orchestra and the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. He is a frequent guest musician with the area’s leading ensembles which include the Detroit Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Flint Symphony and Detroit Chamber Winds. In addition, each summer he performs as an euphoniumist with the Toledo Symphony Concert Band. In 2009, he formed the Oakland University Brass Band which since its inception has gone on to receive national and international recognition. From 2008-2011, he served as the conductor of the award-winning Capital City Brass Band of Lansing, Michigan. In addition, he has served as the music director of the Smoky Mountain Brass Band, and as a regular guest conductor of the Michigan Chamber Brass, the Round Top Music Festival Institute, among others.
Choice Program
Paganini Variations
Philip Wilby
Program Notes
Paganini Variations was composed in 1991 in response to a commission from the BBC. Subsequently chosen as a test-piece for the British Open Championship, it enjoys enduring popularity from Japan and Australasia to Europe and North America. Based on Paganini’s famous 24th Caprice, the work exploits all the soloistic brilliance of the modern brass band. There are 16 variations, arranged in three broad groups, and the music is designed to show all the players at their very best. The music opens with a sequence of character studies, often involving solos groups or individuals, and culminating in a virtuosic Bolero played by all the cornet players in unison. The slow movement is heralded by a sequence of cadenzas, rewritten at the request of Harry Mortimer for contest use, but here using the composer’s original version. The Romanza which follows, featuring the solo voice of the flugel horn, is the closest that this composition comes to the musical style of Paganini’s own time. The third and final section begins with a demonic crescendo and subsequent restatement of the original melody, before bursting into a flaming major-key coda so highly characteristic of Wilby’s earliest and most popular compositions.
NABBA Results History (14)
| Section | Best Finish | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| First | 1st | 1 |
| Third | 1st | 1 |
| Event | Section | Place | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Championships 2026 | First | 6th | 88.650 | |
| Dublin Festival of Brass | Open Competition | — | — | |
| NABBA Championships 2025 | First | 2nd | 92.283 | |
| NABBA Championships 2023 | First | 7th | 86.967 | |
| NABBA Championships 2022 | First | 3rd | 91.583 | |
| NABBA Championships 2019 | First | 5th | 267.800 | |
| NABBA Championships 2018 | First | 6th | 280.600 | |
| NABBA Championships 2017 | First | 6th | 277.600 | |
| NABBA Championships 2016 | First | 10th | — | |
| NABBA Championships 2014 | First | 1st | 97.400 | |
| NABBA Championships 2013 | First | 3rd | 257.400 | |
| NABBA Championships 2012 | First | 5th | 270.600 | |
| NABBA Championships 2011 | First | 5th | 251.000 | |
| NABBA Championships 2010 | Third | 1st | 276.200 |