Empire Brass to Perform at UC Irvine : Music: The chamber ensemble will open the Orange County Philharmonic Society’s season with the West Coast premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Dance Suite.

A brass ensemble may be a mainstay for any modern orchestra, but on its own, it’s one of the less-frequently heard chamber ensembles. Perhaps that’s why the Empire Brass is in such demand these days.

“It’s been a wild 19 years,” said tuba player J. Samuel Pilafian, 40, in a telephone conversation from Fresno, where the ensemble performed Monday. He and trumpeter Rolf Smedvig, 38, were original members of the quintet, originally based in New York City. The remaining members of the current lineup are horn player Eric Ruske, 27, trumpeter Jeffrey Curnow, 29, and trombonist Scott Hartman, 31.

“The reason a group like ours sticks together is because we have a lot in common and somehow when we sit down and play we fit like a shoe,” Pilafian explained. “It just feels good, and that’s important.”

Tonight, the Empire Brass opens the Orange County Philharmonic Society’s season at the new Irvine Barclay Theatre on the UC Irvine campus. Along with the group’s usual mix of transcriptions of classics, new works and jazz arrangements, it will give the West Coast premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Dance Suite, originally written for the Empire Brass and the composer’s last piece premiered in his lifetime.

“This is a very special piece for us,” explained Pilafian. “Bernstein has always been important to us because it was during the premiere of his ‘Mass’ that we originally met.”

In 1971, when Bernstein’s “Mass” opened the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, five brass players were recruited from Tanglewood in Massachusetts to be part of the onstage, in-costume orchestra. From that moment, they started to rehearse together and eventually melded into a unit.

“We used to listen to recordings of the Borodin String Quartet and would try to simulate their sound,” Pilafian said.

Eventually naming themselves after the Empire State Building--at the suggestion of a doorman who worked at a New York theater--the five little by little started to go their separate ways. Four of the five ended up playing with the Boston Symphony.

“But not me,” recalled Pilafian. “I was the only jazzer, so I stayed in New York.”

In 1976, the ensemble started recording and touring; two years later, its members devoted themselves to performing, recording and touring full time.

With more than 20 albums of everything from Baroque and Renaissance music to show-tune arrangements, the group is well known around the world and tours extensively. In addition to its many radio appearances and a performance for Jimmy Carter’s presidential inauguration, ithas appeared several times on television shows ranging from “Good Morning America” to “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.”

In addition to Bernstein’s Dance Suite, the group has also premiered works by Peter Maxwell Davies, Michael Tilson Thomas, Karel Husa and several other prominent composers.

According to Pilafian, the Empire Brass, along with the Canadian Brass, belongs to a second generation of brass quintets. “The first generation was the New York Brass Quintet, which started this whole phenomenon,” he explained. “And today it’s very satisfying as a performer and teacher to see the third generation of brass quintets coming on strong.”

The Empire Brass quintet will perform tonight at 8 p.m. at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. Tickets: $10 to $20. Information: (714) 854-4646.