NEW GLASGOW – A former music festival Rose Bowl winner will be making a stop in Pictou County as she tours the province with a brass quintet.
New Glasgow native Natalie Alcorn, 24, is currently completing her master’s degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she studies with current and former members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In September, the French horn player joined the NEC Brass Quintet, a chamber ensemble made up of students from across the United States and Thailand, which does community outreach work throughout the greater Boston area.
As part of the work, Alcorn and the four other musicians have gone into elementary, middle and high schools, after-school programs and senior’s homes to give educational performances.
“At the elementary level, we explain to them about the instruments and talk to them about the music, it makes music more accessible to them,” Alcorn explained from her home in Boston. “Then, for high school students, we do more of a recital.”
As part of the program, Alcorn will bring the brass quintet home with her to Nova Scotia for several performances across the province, including here in Pictou County.
“I’m really excited to come and bring the quintet here,” she said. “They’re all students at the Conservatory here with me, and we just started playing together in September. I thought it would be nice to take them to New Glasgow, since there’s not a lot of community brass quintets there. It’s neat to come home and play for people I know.”
While in Pictou County, the quintet will perform for several elementary and high schools during their three-day visit, including West Pictou Consolidated, Temperance Street Elementary, Acadia Street School, Northumberland Regional High School, A.G. Baillie Elementary and North Nova Education Centre. They’ll also perform at Dr. John Hugh Gillis School and St. Francis Xavier University.
The shows will bring Alcorn back to her old stomping grounds – she is a graduate of Acadia Street School and NNEC.
A public performance will also be held at the United Church Gallery in Trenton on March 24 at 7:30 p.m.
“We’ll do recitals where we’ll talk about our music a bit,” she said. “We have a classic, romantic repertoire and I think it’s something everyone will enjoy. We’d love to see as many people there as possible.”
The quintet will also make a stop at Dalhousie University for a performance before returning to Boston.
