“Joyful and sophisticated”
— Dáithí Sproule, Altan
"This mini-orchestra grabs you by the ears and won't let go. It could be the biggest thing to happen to North American Celtic music, ever!"
-- Phil Nusbaum, KBEM/Jazz88
Press Photos
Sample Videos
Brass Lassie - short Bio
Scottish and Irish Music Enlivened by Uncommon Instrumentation, Top-Notch Arrangements and Remarkable Musicianship
BRASS LASSIE, a bold Minnesota-based band, combines traditional tunes, songs and style with dazzling modern horn lines, sparking their own genre of eclectic, remarkable music. The ensemble performs extraordinary takes on Scottish, Irish and French music, traditional and new, featuring a powerful 4-piece horn section, a terrific rhythm section, fine fiddle, flutes, concertina, pipes and vocals, adding a complement of percussive dance for special venues. Their smart, joyous horn arrangements are by top notch jazz arranger Peter Enblom, plus some great band arrangements from Dr. David Milne. BRASS LASSIE released their debut studio album Fall 2018, receiving significant airplay.
Some notable recent performances have been at McNally Smith concert Hall, The Celtic Junction Arts Center (St. Paul, MN), The Irish Fair of Minnesota, The Rock Bend Folk Festival, The International Vintage Band Festival, Icehouse, and a major stage at the Minnesota State Fair.
BRASS LASSIE's members come from a broad world of expertise and experience: traditional music, big bands, show bands, jazz, orchestral, roots & world music.
BRASS LASSIE is:
Laura MacKenzie - wooden flutes, whistles, concertina, pipes, vocals; founder & director
Mary Vanorny - fiddle
Patrice Pakiz - piano
Marc Anderson - percussion
Enrique Toussaint - bass
The Brass Lassie Horns
(bass trombone, tenor trombone, French horn and trumpet/flugelhorn)
In addition to concert hall and festival performances, BRASS LASSIE offers presentations and master classes for schools, colleges and festivals: Traditional "Celtic" music, Irish and Scottish music (Techniques & Styles; Repertoire), Brass Arranging and Performance.
Repertoire
BRASS LASSIE's extraordinary repertoire, enriched with brass, fiddle, flutes, pipes, vocals, classic and ethnic percussion, bass and piano, includes....
- Modern and traditional Irish reels, jigs, hornpipes
- Scottish and French Canadian tunes
- Ancient Irish airs featuring brass
- Cape Breton tunes and puirt à beul (mouth music)
- New arrangements of Scots Gaelic waulking songs
- Music from Brittany and Central France
- Scots and Scottish Gaelic ballads
- Latin-infused Celtic dance tunes