Since its formation in 1983, the Paragon Brass Ensemble has delighted audiences at home in Houston and across the country with programs of musical virtuosity and tremendous variety. The group was formed to appear at the Texas Renaissance Festival and made its formal concert debut in 1985 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Since then the ensemble has performed hundreds of concerts annually and is especially noted for its versatility and unique repertoire.

Through its association with Young Audiences, Inc. the Paragon Brass Ensemble has introduced thousands of children to classical music each year since 1985. The ensemble was nominated for the General Electric Artist Award for excellence in arts-in-education and performed for the national convention of Young Audiences in Kansas City. The quintet has offered its own concert series in Houston, has toured Texas (through the Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Roster), the Midwest and South, and has done outreach through its own Arts for the Elderly program.

The Paragon Brass Ensemble’s Houston concerts have been recorded for broadcast on KUHF and have been heard nationally on Performance Today. The PBE’s Salute to Sousa was broadcast on KUHF as a one-hour special on July 4, 1991 and their one-hour Christmas special, A New Joy Has Come!, aired on Christmas Eve Day, 1992. The Paragon Brass celebrated the Gershwin Centennial with an all-Gershwin gala in Galveston’s Grand 1894 Opera House and in 1999 released their first compact disc recording, Joy to the World, which was recorded at Ascension Episcopal Church.