Brass in the Afternoon Blowing Rock SummerMusic Presents Concert at St. Mary of the Hills Thursday Blowing Rock’s SummerMusic Series welcomes The Giannini Brass Ensemble for a special Thursday matinee performance. Entitled “Afternoon Fanfare”, this energetic and exciting concert begins at 4:00 PM at St Mary of the Hills Episcopal Church on Main Street in Blowing Rock.  The concert will feature music selections ranging from the late-1400’s to the mid-1900’s by composers including Brahms, DeBussy, Holst and Gershwin. The Giannini Brass Ensemble The brass quintet will be joined by percussionist John R. Beck who has performed with the National, Seattle and Baltimore Symphonies as well as the US Marine Band; Mr. Beck is also a Professor of Percussion at the NC School of the Arts.  Members of the Giannini Brass perform in nearly all of NC’s Symphonies and have toured around the United States and Europe.  They took the name “Giannini” from composer and educator Vittorio Giannini, the founder of the NC School of the Arts.  Recipients of numerous grants for innovative and educational programs including the acclaimed “Science of Sound”, the group likes to perform in unusual and interesting performance settings, including multi-media planetarium concerts, symphony orchestras and radio and television programs.  They have been artists-in-residence at Classical 89.9 WDAV and The NC School of the Arts summer music program Musica Piccola, and have released four recordings. Members of the group include Anita Cirba, Principal Trumpet of both the Winston-Salem and greensboro Orchestras; Chris Ferguson, Principal Trombonist of the Salisbury Symphony and the Long Bay Symphony in Myrtle Beach, SC: Joseph Mount, french hornist of the Winston-Salem and Greensboro Symphonies, David Nicholson, PRincipal Tuba with the Greensboro Symphony and Music Professor at Davidson College, and Kenneth Wilmot, member of the trumpet sections of the Winston Salem and Greensboro Symphonies. The concert is open to the public and tickets are available at the door for $15 for adults — children under 12 are admitted free.  More information on this year’s concet series is available at www.SummerMusicBR.com  or by calling the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce at 828/295-7851