It’s been a busy year! Let’s look back on 2025:

Our Concerts

We put on four unique concerts this year! We started 2025 with LAB-A x LBS: Musical Fusion with Arturo Sandoval, joined by soloist Doug Tornquist, then wrapped our 24-25 season with our annual Next Up! New Music for Brass with 8 incredible composers.

In October, we kicked off our third season with The Good, The Brass & The Ugly featuring guest artists Good Time Brass, Ari Wojciech, Ellen Shinogle and Ben Gunnarson. We just finished the first half of our season with A Brassy Little Christmas just a few weeks ago, with help from special guests Tiffany Johns, John Snell and Katie Kelley.

We are so grateful for the support of Bob Reeves Brass and the Long Beach Symphony during 2025. Without their investment in the future of the brass arts, our programming would not be possible. 

Our Collaborators

In 2025, LAB-A performed a total of 35 works, including 14 new arrangements and 9 new works written specially for us. That's over half of our programming! Our 2025 premieres included the works below:

• Mosaic Mambo | Noah N. Zubia-Sanchez

• The Celestial Alchemist | Sydney Wang

• Thirty Crossed Paths | Ariel Sol

• Sounds of Crossing | Estevan Olmos

• Next Time Around | Jeremy Dávalos

• Sayacmarca | Mckenna Reeve

• Cloudmass | Ben Beckman

• Ascension | Jeremy Zerbe

• Do Not Go (Gentle) | Ryn Jorgenson

We’re so grateful to the fantastic nine arrangers and eight 2025 Next Up! composers who made our 2025 concerts truly special.

Our deep thanks and appreciation to all who wrote for our ensemble this year:

Austin Ali -- Ben Beckman -- Nathan Culcasi -- Jeremy Dávalos -- Jack Finlay -- Joseph Fremed -- Caleb Gomes --Tiffany Johns -- Ryn Jorgenson -- Mason Moy -- Chris O'Brien -- Estevan Olmos -- McKenna Reeve -- Ariel Sol -- Sydney Wang -- Jeremy Zerbe -- Derek Zimmerman -- Noah N. Zubia-Sanchez

Our Musicians

We couldn’t have brought these works to life without our incredible musicians! We had a total of 78 ensemble musicians performing in our 2025 concerts, with 33 brass and percussion musicians joining us for the first time. For those keeping score, that’s 17 trumpets, 21 French horns, 20 tenor & bass Trombones, 2 euphoniums, 13 tubas, and 5 percussionists & pianists. 

Our musicians joined us as current students or recent grads of 25 universities around the Los Angeles area and beyond. While it’d be a little too hard to calculate the miles driven, let’s just say they kept the show on the road!

We're so grateful to everyone who performed with us. Thank you for your time, energy and dedication -- LAB-A is the ensemble it is because of you!