Mnozil Brass

Mnozil Brass has established itself as one of the world’s premier brass ensembles. With more than 130 performances a year, the Austrian group has sold out houses in Israel, China, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States. In addition, their YouTube videos have garnered millions of views, with fans traveling countless miles to hear them play. Recent North American concerts have been hailed as “seriously funny” and “whimsically brazen.”

Their shows include “Yes! Yes! Yes!,” which blends original composition with classical favorites, jazz standards and popular hits, and “Cirque,” where the musicians combat the monkey business of daily life with music and humor, transforming the stage into a musical flea circus.

Mnozil Brass take their name from the Gasthaus Mnozil, a restaurant across the street from the Vienna Conservatory, where seven young brass musicians met in 1992. The group has embraced a repertoire for all ages and stages of life — folk to classical to jazz to pop — and all executed with the same fearless technical skill. They define their style as typical Viennese “schmäh” (almost impossible to translate into English but described by them as a kind of sarcastic charm).

The group has recorded eight albums and six DVDs. They’ve collaborated on three operetta and opera productions and composed and recorded the music for the 2006 film “Freundschaft.” The group won the prestigious Salzburger Stier Cabaret Prize in 2006 and has been nominated for the Amadeus Austrian Music Award.

Supported in part by Mark and Nancy Gilman.