DANBURY, CONN. — The internationally acclaimed wind ensemble Trombones de Costa Rica will perform their signature blend of classical, contemporary and Latin American music in a concert at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 3, at Western Connecticut State University.

The public is invited to the concert in Ives Concert Hall in White Hall on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. Admission fees are $10 for the general public, $5 for senior citizens and non-WestConn students with identification, and free for WestConn students with valid ID. For ticket information, call (203) 837-8499 or visit www.wcsu.edu/tickets.

Members of the quartet also will present a master class at 3 p.m. on Feb. 3 in Room 122 of White Hall. The class will be free and open to the public.

The concert and master class will be cosponsored by the university’s School of Visual and Performing Arts and department of music.

Founded in 1991, the Costa Rican quartet of trombonists has recorded three CD albums — “Contrastes” (Contrasts), “Imagenes” (Images) and “Trombonismos” — that feature the broad range of the group’s classical and Latin repertoire. Winners of the 1997 Costa Rican National Award of Music and the 1999 Special Prize at the annual Passau (Germany) Music Festival, Trombones de Costa Rica also is well known for its outreach to widely varied audiences through recitals and educational programs.

The quartet has toured widely in Central, North and South America, the Caribbean and Europe, and presents a series of performances each year at Costa Rica’s national concert halls Centenario Teatro Nacional and Auditorio Nacional. Since 2001, the group has organized an annual international trombone festival that attracts leading brass artists from around the world to Costa Rica.

The ensemble is directed by tenor trombonist Alejandro Gutierrez, who also serves as the principal trombonist of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica and as a music educator at Costa Rica’s National Institute of Music. Gutierrez has performed as a soloist in many countries in the Americas and has toured with several wind ensembles in Europe. Other members of Trombones de Costa Rica are tenor trombonists Martin Bonilla and Leonel Rodriguez, and bass trombonist Ivan Chinchilla.

Paquito D’Rivera, the Grammy-nominated saxophone and clarinet virtuoso and 2005 National Medal of Arts recipient, described Trombones de Costa Rica as “one of the most interesting brass ensembles that I have heard in years.” New York Philharmonic Orchestra principal trombonist Joseph Alessi, a world-renowned master of the instrument’s classical repertoire, praised the Costa Rican quartet as “one of the greatest trombone ensembles performing today. They’re new and fresh, and just fun to listen to.”

A profile published on the Trombones de Costa Rica Web site emphasized the group’s originality and restless exploration of different musical styles as key elements in its international appeal.

“The permanent search of new horizons has permitted the incorporation of diverse and varied genres that range from the classical repertory to indigenous popular folk songs, expressed through Latin American music, jazz and other forms,” the Web site profile observed. “Moreover, its repertoire includes a large number of works by Costa Rican and foreign composers specially commissioned for performance by the group.” 

For more information, call the WestConn department of music at (203) 837-8350. Additional information about Trombones de Costa Rica is available on the group’s Web site at www.trombonesdecostarica.com.