Join UNCSA brass students Emily Mudra, Zichao Lui, Elijah Barclift, Thomas Holladay-Munuz, and Avery Greene for an exciting afternoon or popular music for brass quintet featuring works from West Side Story, the Beatles and jazz standards. The concert will be held from 3 until 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 2, 2022, at the Mary Alice Warren Community Center in Lewisville.
Admission is free; however, seating is LIMITED. The sponsorship for the concert was made possible by the Shallowford Foundation.
Brass Quintet members include:
Emily Mudra is a first-year graduate trumpet student at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). Her first dream was to become a bugler, just like Corporal Dobbs in the seventies comedy F Troop, which was gifted to her in 2009 by her grandmother. Because of that little fateful gift, it set Emily on a professional trumpet path as she encountered numerous opportunities to perform with wind ensembles, orchestras, and funk and rock bands. Undergraduate performance highlights at Wichita State University include performances with their wind ensemble, symphonic band, symphony orchestra, jazz band, Banda Hispanica, a capella choir, concert chorale, trumpet ensembles, and Shocker Sound (athletic band). Outside of school, she enjoyed performing with Wichita’s funkiest bands including Skinny Slim and the Fat Tuesday Brass Band. Additionally, Emily became the first rock trumpet player in Wichita to perform with the original blues-rock band Big Red Horse and she was a member of the Seattle Cascades Drum Corps in 2019.
Zichao Liu is a first-year graduate trumpet student at UNCSA. He is from China and has been playing the trumpet since he was in elementary school. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Tianjin Conservatory of Music. During his undergraduate studies, he was awarded numerous scholarships, including a national scholarship. Zichao has played with the Tianjin Song and Dance Theater Symphony Orchestra, Kunming International Philharmonic Orchestra, Tianjin Youth Symphony Orchestra, Stars Symphony Orchestra, Gold Diggers Brass Ensemble, and Jin Men Brass Quintet. From December 2020 to January 2021, he served as the Principal Trumpet for the Kunming International Philharmonic Orchestra’s Winter National tour, which performed in eight cities throughout China.
Elijah Barclift (horn) is from Greensboro, North Carolina and a high school junior at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. This summer he will perform at Carnegie Hall and tour Europe with the National Youth Orchestra of America. Elijah was recently named the 2021 North Carolina Representative for the Music Teachers National Association's Senior Brass Competition, the Northeast Horn Workshop High School Solo Competition Winner, and the Northwest Horn Workshop High School Low Horn Excerpt Winner and Solo Competition runner up. As a young freelancer, he has recently performed with the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra. Elijah was the principal horn of the North Carolina All-State Honors Band in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. Elijah’s parents are band directors and were his first music teachers. Before coming to UNCSA, he studied with Dr. Mary Burroughs and Dr. Maria Serkin.
Thomas Holladay-Muñoz is a tenor trombonist from Winston-Salem, North Carolina and is currently in his first year of the undergraduate program at UNCSA. He is currently pursuing classical studies as his area of focus, but also has a jazz background. He hopes one day to become a member of a symphony orchestra and explore freelance opportunities. Thomas comes from a family of musicians and was first introduced to the trombone in second grade where he filled his summers playing in youth brass bands. Before pursuing studies at UNCSA for his junior year of high school, he participated in state-level competitions in jazz and national competitions for classical performance. Thomas also enjoys playing sports, traveling, esports, and spending time with family and friends.
Avery Greene is a second-year undergraduate tuba student at UNCSA. Previously, he studied tuba with Tim Korhing (Leesville Road High School in Raleigh, NC) and Seth Horner (UNCSA). Avery currently studies with Dr. Brent Harvey at UNCSA. Throughout high school, he participated in multiple honor bands and extracurricular ensembles, including the All-National Honors Band, UNCG Honor Band, and Triangle Youth Brass Band. At UNCSA, Avery has performed with the wind ensemble and symphony orchestra, and has played with a variety of chamber ensembles, including a brass quintet and tuba-euphonium ensemble. Working with Demondrae Thurman and Kenneth Amis in master classes and concert settings are among recent career highlights.