Music City Brass Ensemble

Music City Brass Ensemble MCBE is non-profit ensemble located in middle Tennessee. It is comprised of the region's top amateur and professional brass and percussion players.

MCBE provides free live performances throughout the community year-round.

MCBE is excited to introduce Kevin McKee whose work, Tribute, will be performed on our upcoming FREE concert! Come here ...
06/17/2026

MCBE is excited to introduce Kevin McKee whose work, Tribute, will be performed on our upcoming FREE concert!
Come here this and many more exciting patriotic works on Sunday, July 5th, 2026 at 12:30 pm CT at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 4715 Harding Pike, Nashville, TN 37205

Kevin McKee (b. 1980) is an American composer with a primary emphasis in brass chamber music. He was born and raised in Yreka, CA, a little mountain town in the heart of the “State of Jefferson” (Northern California) . He began playing the trumpet in grade school at the urging of his father, who was the high school music teacher in town. He went on to earn two degrees in trumpet performance; a BM from Sacramento State, where he studied with Gary Dilworth, and a MM from the University of Maryland, under Chris Gekker. He is also an alumni of the Aspen Music Festival and the National Orchestral Institute.

He was inspired to write his first composition, Escape for brass quintet, after attending the 2006 MMCK chamber music festival in Japan and having the opportunity to work with the incredible composer/trumpeter Anthony DiLorenzo. He has enjoyed growing his catalogue ever since. His music has been performed on every non ice-covered continent, and can be heard on over 50 recordings. He has contributed to the International Trumpet Guild Journal and is a member of ASCAP, through which he has been a recipient of many ASCAP Plus awards. In addition to composing he is an active trumpet performer in the DC area and has been second trumpet in the Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, OR since 2009. He also enjoys teaching at the International School of Music and at the DC Youth Orchestra Program in addition to his private studio. He lives with his wife, two daughters, dog and 3 cats.

Welcome back to Music City Monday! We’d like to introduce you to the featured member on our upcoming concert…tympanist B...
06/08/2026

Welcome back to Music City Monday! We’d like to introduce you to the featured member on our upcoming concert…tympanist Bill Wiggins! We are honored to have this former Nashville Symphony member as a member of our ensemble and cannot wait to hear him as soloist on The Concertino for Timpani by Michael Colgrass and Wes Ramsay’s (also a magnificent MCBE member) Heroes and Friends!

Our fantastic all-American program will be performed on July 5th, 2026 at 12:30 pm. The concert will be held at St. George’s Episcopal Church: 4715 Harding Pike, Nashville, TN 37205.

Read on for more info on Bill Wiggins!
Bill Wiggins served as Principal Timpanist of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, until retirement in July of 2015, after 49 seasons. He can be heard on recordings on the Naxos, Decca, Mercury and Magnatone labels including Grammy Award winning recordings of music of Michael Daugherty, Stephan Paulus, Joseph Schwantner and Joan Tower.

In addition to his tenure with the Nashville Symphony, Bill served as Principal Timpanist of the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra of Door County, Wisconsin. He retired from that position in 2023 after 53 seasons.

Wiggins is Professor Emeritus of Timpani and Percussion at the Blair School of Music of Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee.

Over the course of his career as Timpanist of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the Peninsula Music Festival Mr. Wiggins has performed most of the "canon" of Western Orchestral music including composers from J.S. Bach through those of our time, many of them multiple times. These performances have be led by a variety of well-known conductors, including, but not limited to Thor Johnson,,, Robert Shaw, Kenneth Schermerhorn, Victor Yampolsky, Giancarlo Guerrero, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Neville Marriner, Helmut Rilling, Sir Kristof Pendereki and Joann Falleta.

Bill has been an active member of the Percussive Arts Society since 1970 hosting the first Tennessee Day of Percussion at George Peabody College in 1974 and Percussive Arts Society International Conventions in 1989 and 1996.

Happy International Tuba Day! We had the pleasure of celebrating early at our concert last Sunday that featured the amaz...
05/01/2026

Happy International Tuba Day! We had the pleasure of celebrating early at our concert last Sunday that featured the amazing tubist, Dr. Chris Combest. Bravo, Chris and bravi tutti, MCBE!

04/26/2026
This Sunday, 4/26/26. It’s going to be epic!!!
04/24/2026

This Sunday, 4/26/26. It’s going to be epic!!!

We are excited to announce our next program that includes the music of Bach, John Williams, Richard Strauss and more! Yo...
04/20/2026

We are excited to announce our next program that includes the music of Bach, John Williams, Richard Strauss and more! You won’t want to miss it! Tickets are free and open to all! We are performing at the beautiful West End United Methodist Church: 2200 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203
4/26/26 at 4:00pm

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Nashville, TN

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