News
SMC Faculty Recital Features Brass Quintet
Published on October 7, 2026 - 10 a.m.
Southwestern Michigan College’s brassy faculty recital, “Danny Lopez and Friends, Vol. III: Trumpet in Good Company,” was heard by more than 50 Oct. 6 in the theatre of the Dale A. Lyons Building on the Dowagiac campus.
Fall’s first program featured two pieces with piano reduction, where collaborative pianist Christine Seitz tackled a sheet music score that condensed a large musical work, such as an opera, symphony or choral piece with an orchestra, into just two staves played on a single piano.
Lopez and Seitz opened with William P. Latham’s “Suite for Trumpet and String Orchestra,” with three movements, Prelude, Air and Dance, followed by Oskar Bohme’s “Concerto in F minor, Op. 18 for Trumpet and Orchestra l Allegro Moderato.”
Then Lopez, SMC instructor of applied trumpet from Buchanan, was joined by a brass quintet composed of: Mark Hollandsworth, SMC director of bands, trumpet; Robert Compton, Indiana University South Bend and Quinlan and Fabish Music Co., Mishawaka; Ruth Livengood, Western Michigan University and Brandywine Public Schools band director, trombone; and Tim Doktor, a St. Joseph High School graduate student teaching at Lakeshore High School as he prepares to graduate from WMU, tuba.
“We’ve never played together before” except for three rehearsals, Hollandsworth said.
The five performed Kevin McKee’s “Escape for Brass Quintet,” John Cheetham’s “A Brass Menagerie for Brass Quintet” (five movements, Allegro Molto ed Energico, Lento, Scherzando ben Ritmico, Alla Marcia and Brilliante) and closed with McKee’s “Vuelta del Fuego (Ride of Fire) for Brass Quintet.”
“This kind of playing is the best thing you can do as a musician,” Hollandsworth said. “Form a woodwind quintet or a brass quintet. It challenges you technically because there’s no security when you’re the only one playing a part.”
The scary fall band concert, “Spooktacular,” takes place at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, in the theatre, with the Nola Roux Cajun food truck selling a pre-concert meal from 5 to 6:30. Trick-or-treating will be available before and after the concert. Costumes are encouraged.
