James Gourlay looks at his first season as music director of River City Brass as a learning experience.
"It has been an excellent year and I've enjoyed every minute of it," he says. "I've spent a lot of time learning what the audiences like -- and they are more than willing to tell me."
As he enters the last series of concerts, "Summer Barbecue," beginning on Thursday evening, he mentally is filing away the comments offered by listeners "because I try to shape every concert for the audience."
He knows pleasing an audience is important. When he was hired just about a year ago, the band was in the midst of a fiscal and attendance crisis, giving Gourlay the test of regaining lost listeners.
Band controller Joe Zuback says attendance still is about 5 percent down from last year, but the paid attendance for the December and March shows was 5 percent to 10 percent higher.
"The trend is looking good, but there is still work to be done," he says.
Gourlay says he is trying to please the audience, whose members have told him they like varied programs, "they like things they know," and marches, of course.
"We have done some U.S. premieres, too, but they have been accessible and the audience has reacted well to them," he says.
The tradition-minded Western Pennsylvania audiences have steered him in that direction, but, he adds, he still wants do non-series concerts that would have the band playing newer, more innovative pieces.
"That is as important at maintaining an audience as it is for the musicians," he says.
More importantly, he wants the band to record a new CD to spread the word of its talent. He says it has been nine years since the last one, and he is in the midst of trying to raise funds to fuel the project.
Amid this learning and planning, Gourlay is hoping to finish the year with a series of light-hearted music, ranging from a version of the Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA," sung by the band, to Leonard Bernstein's rousing "Candide" overture.
There will be two American premieres "The Enchanted Kingdom" and "Enter the Galaxies," which he calls "very filmic."
"You know how it is at a barbecue," he says with a laugh. "You can pretty much serve up anything at all."
Additional Information:'Summer Barbecue'
Presented by: River City Brass
When and where: 8 p.m. Thursday, Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland; 8 p.m. Friday, Carson Middle School, McCandless; 8 p.m. Saturday, Palace Theatre, Greensburg; 3 p.m. Sunday, Baldwin High School; 8 p.m. Tuesday, Upper St. Clair Theater; 8 p.m. May 12, Gateway High School, Monroeville; 3 p.m. May 15, Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center, Johnstown.
Admission: Prices vary
Details: 412-434-7222
