by David K. Rodgers GREENSBORO-TheSynergy Brass Quintet from Boston started off the
Summer Music From Greensboro series with an animated performance, that had the musicians
moving about in addition to playing, the pieces. ...they worked well together, combining
impressive musicianship with a sense of fun, breaking down the more customary formality
between audience and performers in classical, music....

A Religious hymn by Thomas Tallis, If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments, was the
highlight of the evening, with the five musicians spread out in the different corners of
the sanctuary so as to create a surrounding sound effect of ethereal beauty, so popular
with the audience that they later repeated the work in the second half of the program.
W.C.Handy's Memphis Blues allowed the musicians to really rip loose in terms of both
expressiveness and decibel level.

After the intermission Rossini's Overture To The Barber Of Seville got
the tempo revved up again, but the next piece by contrast was the truly
spiritual Shaker tune, The Gift To Be Simple, in Copeland's variations
from Appalachian Spring. Evensong (in Memory of 9/11) by Bobby Thorp
was a moving "evening prayer" with appropriate long rhythms.