BFB students from Lincoln Elementary School in Evanston, IL, and from the Music Institute of Chicago, are preparing for a presentation at the 2015 Chicago Brass Festival at Northeastern Illinois University on Saturday March 14th.

Brass for Beginners® ‘Volume 1, Prehistory to Classical Antiquity’ utilizes a great deal of student centered learning to inspire students’ capacity for creative sound production while developing basic skills of brass playing. For example: in LESSON FIVE: The Ancient World in Ten Trumpets, students choose a few of the trumpets, learn about the historical/cultural context in which they were used, and create music for them. This year’s class chose the Peruvian pututus (highly decorated strombus shell trumpets), twenty of which were discovered at the temple at Chavín de Huántar in the Andes mountains. The temple was found to have unusual acoustical properties which have been documented by archeoacousticians who have been studying the temple for many years. You can read about their findings at the Chavín de Huántar Archaeological Acoustics Project website.

BFB students have answered the who, what, where, why, and when questions in order to gain insight, enabling them to imagine what kinds of sounds could have been made on the pututus trumpets. At the upcoming Chicago Brass Festival presentation, students will explain how the trumpets might have been used at Chavín de Huántar, and then perform an arrangement for attendees.  Click here for information about the 2015 Chicago Brass Festival.