Portable Masterpieces theater show coming to opera house Aug. 5

Before the Internet, before television, there was radio, and before radio was Vaudeville. The small orchestras of the radio shows and the vaudeville stage often performed varied repertoires from short snappy commercials to full-length works by major composers arranged for their size. Trinkle Brass Works presents Portable Masterpieces, a salon/theater orchestra that will bring this type of music to life in their first time visit to the Eureka Opera House, Saturday Aug. 5 at 7 p.m.

Trinkle Brass Works, Inc. have received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts under the “Arts Engagement in American Communities” program that help support performances of Portable Masterpieces in vintage opera houses of the old west.

The grants are given from the National Endowment based upon the “exemplary variety of the approaches to engagement” that was proposed for the project and the ensemble’s history of high quality arts programming.

Trinkle Brass Works (TBW), organized in 1977, has received support from various groups including Yamaha International, USA, the Harris Foundation, and arts councils and agencies in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Nevada. A non-profit charitable and educational organization under the artistic leadership of Steven Trinkle since 1985, TBW has commissioned works by Thomas Albert, Gunther Tautenhahn, Roberto Sierra and Harry Lockwood, all ASCAP award-winning composers.

Patty Peek, Eureka Opera House manager, said the group has rented the hall and makes all the necessary arrangement and preparations. “They will even have their own people taking tickets at the door,” she said.

As the summer is moving closer to the beginning of the new school year, Peek said the next performance, following the Eureka County Fair, August 11-12, will be country singer Matt Ferris August 18-19 and the Boom Bandits which is part of the Arts in the Park event in Eureka. “He will perform in the Park Friday evening, then in the Opera House Saturday evening,” she said.