Join us for an unforgettable evening with Uptown Brass, featuring the talented brass musicians from the renowned Minnesota Orchestra. They performed a concert for us in 2024 and we are thrilled to have them back with the addition of percussion! The Uptown Brass presents an eclectic, entertaining, and virtuosic program.
Douglas Carlsen, trumpet
Charles Lazarus, trumpet
Michael Gast, horn
R. Douglas Wright, trombone
Steven Campbell, tuba
Dave Schmalenberger, percussion
Please note this concert starts 1 hour later than our concerts typically begin.
🕠 Date & Time: Sunday, December 6, 2026, music begins at 5:30 PM
🎟️ Tickets: General admission, ranging from $10-$52
📍 Location: Christ Lutheran Church (150 5th St, Marine on Saint Croix, MN 55047)
After the concert, stay for complimentary refreshments and engaging conversation with the musicians and fellow attendees.
About the artists:
The Uptown Brass are all musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra. They have played together for 17 years and have performed together and individually in every U.S. state and throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa. These five brass virtuosos have been members of the Empire Brass, Canadian Brass, Meridian Arts Ensemble, and Dallas Brass. They have performed in major concert venues worldwide and with all of the leading U.S. orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, LA Philharmonic, and Chicago Symphony.
When not performing with the Minnesota Orchestra, Uptown Brass has presented concerts throughout the Midwest, Texas, South Africa and Cuba. They are all the best of friends and got their name from rehearsing and playing neighborhood educational fundraising concerts and parties in Mike's garage in Uptown Minneapolis.
Douglas Carlsen joined the Minnesota Orchestra as associate principal trumpet in 1999, after holding the principal trumpet post with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and since has been featured here in Sommerfest chamber music performances and performances of Copland’s Quiet City, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and Sibelius' Overture for Brass Septet. He has served as acting associate principal with the San Francisco Symphony. Carlsen has performed with the San Diego Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Sun Valley Music Festival, Lakes Area Music Festival and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
A committed chamber musician, Carlsen has performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra, Banff Summer Music Festival, Summit Brass and Uptown Brass Quintet. He has participated in music festivals throughout Europe, Canada and the United States, and he has recorded Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Trumpets with David Hickman on the Summit Records label.
Carlsen, a native of Nebraska, learned music from both of his parents. He attended Arizona State University, where he was a student of David Hickman and Anthony Plog. Other teachers included Steve Ericksen and Craig Bircher. He and his wife, Naoko, live in Excelsior, where they love to garden and take long walks with their new puppy Pebbles. They also love to explore Japan, Naoko’s native country. (reference: MN Orchestra)
Charles Lazarus is a member of the Minnesota Orchestra and a multi-faceted musician who has charted a unique course as performer, composer, producer and band leader. His career has included tenures in several of the best-known brass ensembles in the world, including Dallas Brass, Meridian Arts Ensemble and Canadian Brass.
As a soloist, composer and bandleader, Lazarus has created four original crossover orchestral programs featuring his various ensembles: “A Night in the Tropics,” “American Riffs,” “Fly Me to the Moon” and most recently “The New American Songbook” featuring the Grammy Award-winning family vocal quintet The Steeles. On “Merry & Bright,” his annual program of fresh takes on holiday favorites, Lazarus is joined by vocalists, a children’s choir and an all-brass big band.
His live recording of Steve Heitzeg’s American Nomad concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä and a children’s animated short film featuring his composition A Perfect Square paired with Michael Hall’s book of the same name are examples of his many collaborations.
Lazarus made his Carnegie Hall solo debut with the New York String Orchestra at 19 while still a student at the Juilliard School in New York. Since then, he has soloed with dozens of orchestras and ensembles throughout North America. In demand as a clinician and teacher, he is a clinician and performer for Minnesota Public Radio’s Class Notes program. He has performed and taught master classes in every U.S. state, Canada, Brazil, Cuba, South Africa, and throughout Asia and Europe.
In addition to his tenure in several well-known brass ensembles, he has performed with Empire Brass, London Brass and the New York Philharmonic Principal Brass. Rounding out this eclectic experience, he has also performed his original compositions at the Montreal and Ottawa international jazz festivals, opened for Tony Bennett, and performed with Barry White and Joe Williams. Lazarus's six solo recordings: Solo Settings, Zabava, Merry & Bright, Lovejoy, Merrier & Brighter and The Modern Hymn Project showcase his wide-ranging talent and feature collaborations with diverse composers, arrangers and performers. (reference: MN Orchestra)
Steven Campbell, a native of Texas, assumed his current post in 2005, after having performed with the Minnesota Orchestra on its 2004 European tour and in numerous subscription concerts. He performed two solos with the Orchestra during the 2010-11 season: Torbjörn Lundquist’s Landscape for Tuba and String Orchestra at subscription concerts and George Kleinsinger’s Tubby the Tuba at education and family concerts. In a May 2023 subscription concert, he performed Wynton Marsalis’ Tuba Concerto. A frequent presence in the Orchestra's chamber music series, Campbell has performed on Victor Ewald’s Brass Quintet No. 3, James Stephenson's Pillars and Paquito D'Rivera's Four Pieces for Brass Quintet, among others.
Inspired by his parents, who are both musicians, Campbell became interested in music at an early age; his first teacher was his father, also a tuba player. Campbell went on to study at the University of Houston with David Kirk of the Houston Symphony, then completed a bachelor of music degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston, studying with former Boston Symphony musician Chester Schmitz.
While in Boston, Campbell performed regularly with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestras and was a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Vermont Symphony. In 1997 Campbell joined the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia in La Coruña, Spain, where he played for two years. Upon his return to the United States, Campbell was a fellow with the New World Symphony before joining the New Mexico Symphony, where he served as principal tuba for four years. During his tenure in New Mexico, Campbell also performed with the Seattle and Colorado Symphonies and the Seattle Opera. In 2004-05, the season before he joined the Minnesota Orchestra, Campbell was principal tuba of the Milwaukee Symphony. He has also performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Colorado Symphony and Seattle Symphony and Opera.
Campbell has participated in many music festivals, including the Colorado Music Festival, Tanglewood, National Repertory Orchestra, Spoleto USA and Moab Music Festival, and has performed chamber music with such ensembles as Proteus 7 and the Empire Brass Quintet. In 2014 he premiered James Stephenson’s Vast and Curious trio for French Horn, Tuba and Piano, an international micro-commission funded by numerous individual donors, performing with horn player Gail Williams at the International Tuba conference in Bloomington, Indiana.
Campbell is also an educator. He is on the faculty of the University of Minnesota and has given master classes and lectures in the U.S. and abroad. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Michelle, and their sons, Rowen and Leo. (reference: MN Orchestra)
R. Douglas Wright, the Minnesota Orchestra’s principal trombone since 1995, was featured as soloist in 2007 in Kalevi Aho’s Symphony No. 9 for Trombone and Orchestra, which he reprised during summer 2008. Wright has performed a variety of trombone concertos with the Orchestra, and in 2002 gave the world premiere performances of Kurt Schwertsik’s Trombone Concerto—a work written for him. He is active as a solo recitalist and performer in the Orchestra's chamber concert series. Highlights include his 2011 performance of James Stephenson’s Sonata for Trombone and Piano on the Orchestra’s Chamber Music at MacPhail series.
In addition to his Minnesota Orchestra performances, since 2005 Wright has been performing concerts around the world with the World Orchestra for Peace, an ensemble of musicians from 40 different countries. Prior to joining the Minnesota Orchestra he was a member of the Empire Brass Quintet, performing concerts and teaching master classes around the world. He has served as principal trombone of the Cleveland Orchestra, assistant principal trombone of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, second trombone of the Boston Pops Orchestra and principal trombone of the Rhode Island Philharmonic.
Wright received his training at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Norman Bolter. He holds a master’s degree from Boston University, where he formerly served as adjunct professor of trombone. A committed educator and Selmer clinician, Wright has given recitals and master classes throughout the United States and abroad. Since 2012 he has been on faculty at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University.
Wright’s work is heard on recordings of the Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Empire Brass. In a brief departure from his concert and orchestral role, he appeared in an MTV music video with the rock group Aerosmith. (reference: MN Orchestra)
Dr. David Schmalenberger recently performed on drumset/percussion with the Minnesota Orchestra,the Florida Orchestra, the Laura Caviani trio, the Steeles, Garrison Keillor, the Daisy Dillman Band,Cantus, cabaret legend Marilyn Maye, Take That Back!, Rebel Fiddle, the Joan Hutton Jazz Project,DAT Trio, and the Childrens Theatre Company. David also recently recorded with vocalist Connie Evingson (“Sweet Happy Life”), guitarist David Singley (“Good Hope”), trumpeter Chuck Lazarus (“Lovejoy” and “Merry and Bright”), Vicky Mountain and David Martin (“Play On”), the Laura Caviani trio with Chris Bates (“Mysterious Thelonius” and “Confluence”), and the Bill Simenson Jazz Orchestra (“Big Alpaca”).
David is active as a clinician offering workshops in jazz, percussion, and world music.
Schmalenberger has served as adjudicator/clinician for several jazz festivals, both regionally and nationally. He has also presented scholarly papers and clinics for the Percussive Arts Society, the Society for American Music, the Minnesota Music Educators Association, and the International Association of Jazz Education.
Schmalenberger received his DMA in Percussion Performance and World Music from West Virginia
University, Master of Music Degree in Orchestral Percussion from the University of Michigan, and
Bachelors Degree in Jazz Studies from Capital University. David endorses Paiste cymbals and
Premier drums.