Annapolis Brass Quintet

The Annapolis Brass Quintet was a brass quintet founded by trumpet player David Cran and trombone player Robert Posten in 1971 as America's first full-time performing brass ensemble. During the course of its 22-year career through 1993, it played concerts in all fifty states and throughout Europe, the Orient, the Middle East, Central America and Canada. The ensemble earned an international reputation for its dedication to excellence in the presentation of brass chamber music.

The original members of the quintet were trumpeters Cran and Haldon "Butch" Johnson, trombonists Posten and John Driver, and horn player Rick Rightnour. Through 1993, 14 different musicians played as regular members, including future social scientist Arthur C. Brooks. At that time, the Quintet disbanded, and played again only for a single concert in December 2000 in Annapolis, Maryland to honor the late jazz guitar legend Charlie Byrd. The final roster in 1993 and at the reunion concert were Cran, Posten, trumpeter Robert Suggs, trombonist Wayne Wells, and horn player Sharon Tiebert, the only female member in the Quintet's history.

The Quintet is notable for its founding of the International Brass Quintet Festival in Baltimore, Maryland, which became recognized as a major forum for brass chamber music. A major highlight of the 1989 festival was the combined appearance of both the East Berlin and West Berlin Brass Quintets with the ABQ two months before the Berlin Wall toppled, a historic collaboration both musically and politically. The festival presented over 200 free public concerts and conducted workshops and seminars for students and professional brass players.

In 1985, the ABQ first performed with the Charlie Byrd Trio as Byrd and Brass. This unique and critically acclaimed blending of Latin, jazz and classical styles, with one of the world's premier jazz guitarists and his trio, led to a long collaboration including over 50 concerts throughout the United States, Christmas concerts in Annapolis, and two recordings, Byrd and Brass and Christmas with Byrd and Brass.

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