November 15, 2016
Matthew Mireles, DMA, Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Bands, was in Kansas City and Chicago last week competing in the 14th U.S. Open Brass Band Championships.
Mireles is an accomplished euphonium soloist. His band, the Fountain City Brass Band, won first place and was named 2016 U.S. Open Brass Band Champion. The group also took home the coveted “Most Entertaining Band” award.
According to 4barsrest.com, Fountain City’s musical program, “Voxtur,” began with Radiohead’s “Creep” and included the new “Star Trek” theme “Enterprising Young Men,” Vienna Teng’s “Hymn of Acxiom,” Sting’s “She’s Too Good For Me,” Bjork’s, “New World” and Michael Daugherty’s “Lex,” inspired by Superman villain Lex Luthor.
The Fountain City Brass Band, directed by University of Missouri-Kansas City professor Joe Parisi, Ph.D., is composed of some of the top brass performers in the country. It features music professors from the University of Alabama, Washington State University, University of Oklahoma, University of Central Oklahoma, Western Missouri State University, Kennesaw State University, University of Kansas, University of Missouri Kansas City and University of New Mexico.
But that’s not all Mireles has been up to this year.
His group, the “Boreas Quartet,” won the International Tuba Euphonium Association‘s 2016 Roger Bobo Award for Excellence in Recording – essentially Album of the Year – for “The Serpent’s Kiss.” The group beat out finalists from Australia, South America and the United States.
Mireles joined the St. Mary’s faculty in March 2016. He earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s in 2007 before earning a Master of Music degree from the University of Alabama and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.