Last year, Brian Meixner took the phrase “the trumpet shall sound” literally. An associate professor of music at High Point University, Meixner founded the North Carolina Brass Band (NCBB), the state’s newest professional music ensemble, and the newest professional brass band in the country.
NCBB is a British-style brass band, composed of 28 musicians and instruments from cornets to tubas, as well as percussion. NCBB has garnered national and international attention with its debut album, First in Flight.
Of the band’s holiday series this month, Meixner says, “It’s traditional Christmas music … with a twist.”
Historically, brass bands in North Carolina were largely community-based. As one of a handful of professional brass bands in the nation, NCBB still has those small-town roots — plus big-city sound.
Cook, read, learn, and celebrate what North Carolina has to offer this month.
Our editor in chief reminisces on her first special-occasion restaurant experience in North Carolina.
In Pitt County, a luthier’s handcrafted guitars are sometimes discolored or full of knots; some are shaped liked snakes or shotguns. Each instrument’s story starts with the wood used to make it. And while the past may have left its scars, beauty can be found in the sights and sounds of art.
The Roanoke begins in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and travels more than 400 miles before emptying into Albemarle Sound, linking countless lives along the way. Follow along as a native son traces the river’s path through northeastern North Carolina, sharing stories of the Roanoke he knows and loves.
