MID AMERICA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY SELECTED AS
NEW HOME TO FOUNTAIN CITY BRASS BAND
New Partnership Spurs MNU Concert Series

OLATHE – A lively harmony will echo its way across the campus at Mid America Nazarene University (MNU) beginning this August. That’s when MNU’s Bell Center will become home to the Fountain City Brass Band.

Kansas City’s award-winning, hometown band recently announced it will make MNU’s Bell Center its permanent home, where it will conduct regular rehearsals in between road trips for local, regional, national and international performances and competitions. This will be the first official home to the 30-piece ensemble, which was founded in 2002, and is under the direction of Musical Director Dr. Joseph Parisi, and Artistic Director Lee Harrelson.

“We are incredibly humbled and excited to have entered into such wonderful partnership with MNU and the Bell Center,” says Harrelson. “The facilities are second to none, and we look forward to a long and mutually prosperous relationship.”

MNU was first introduced to the Fountain City Brass Band during a campus performance in April. Upon inviting the band to return for a future performance, the invitation gave way to discussions about a permanent home for the band, which had been practicing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) with limited availability. Bell Center Coordinator Karen Phillips says the facility will provide the Fountain City Brass Band with ample room for practices in its many music classrooms, as well as to the auditorium’s incredible acoustical environment. It’s a partnership MNU is equally proud to announce.

“We are so excited about this opportunity to partner with the Fountain City Brass Band.  They are outstanding musicians and, coupled with the acoustical atmosphere in the Mabee Performing Arts Hall, the room literally sang their music during their first campus performance,” says Phillips.

In addition to making its new home at MNU, the Fountain City Brass Band has announced a six-concert performance series on the campus during the 2008-2009 school year. The first concert will take place on Tuesday, September 16th at 7:30 p.m. in the Bell Center’s Mabee Performing Arts Hall. For more information about future campus performances, visit www.mnu.edu, and click on Bell Center for complete event information. For more information about the Fountain City Brass Band, visit www.fcbb.net.