Stamp: Music for Brass

Born in Maryland in 1954, John Stamp—commonly known as “Jack”—is a well-known figure both as a conductor and composer in the symphonic wind band movement that flourishes at American universities. However, he has long been fascinated by the sound of the brass bands known in Great Britain, and his work with brass players on both sides of the Atlantic—notably the Lake Wobegon Brass Band from Minneapolis, named after Garrison Keillor's fictional Minnesota town—has produced a series of works that bring elements of the British brass tradition to audiences in the American Midwest, infusing them with a catchy rhythmic swing.