Bellwether Brass Quartet
A professional brass quartet performing at funerals, memorial services, and graveside committals throughout the Chicago area.
About this business
Origin story
The four of us met playing a Christmas Eve service on the North Side in 2016 and kept getting called back for funerals. By 2020 it was steady enough to give it a name and a phone number. We've played somewhere between four and five hundred services since.
Why families choose us
Because we're used to the room. Funerals aren't concerts — they have a rhythm, and there's a real skill in knowing when to play, when to stop, and how loud to be while people are still finding their seats. We take our cues from the celebrant or the funeral director, and we don't need a rehearsal to get it right. We're also easy to book. One phone call, a written quote the same day, and a fixed price that doesn't change on the day.
Ownership
Meet the team
Dee Okonkwo
Trumpet, Founding Member
Dee has played trumpet professionally in Chicago for nineteen years, in pit orchestras, church jobs, and freelance work across the city. She's a founding member of Halsted Street Brass and handles most of the group's booking. She plays Taps more often than anything else in the book, and says it never gets routine — twenty-four notes, no accompaniment, everyone standing. She trained at DePaul and teaches at a community music school on the Southwest Side.
Marcus Feld
Trumpet
Marcus joined the quartet in 2018. He plays second trumpet on most services and takes the lead on jazz and New Orleans repertoire, which he grew up with — his father played tenor sax in a Bronzeville club band. Outside the group he subs regularly with two suburban orchestras and does session work. He's the one who usually talks to families about music selection, and he's good at it. If you're not sure what you want, he'll ask three questions and come back with four suggestions.
Bo Achterberg
Trombone
Bo has been with the group since 2016. Twenty-two years playing professionally, most of it in pit orchestras. Steady, early, and not chatty.
Who they serve
Religious tradition
Community served
Language
Instruments & genres
Instruments
Genres
Services & pricing
Service
Price
$950
$725
$1,175
$0
$0.65/mile
Common questions
What types of ceremonies do you play at?
Funerals, memorial services, and graveside committals, at churches, funeral homes, crematoria, cemeteries, and outdoor venues. We regularly play Catholic funeral Masses, Protestant services, and non-religious celebrations of life. We provide Taps for veterans' honors, either alongside a military honor guard or on our own. We also play memorial concerts, unveilings and headstone dedications, and annual remembrance services for hospices, hospitals, and fire and police departments.
What families say
New to EndCo — be among the first. No family has written about Bellwether Brass Quartet here yet.
Did you work with Bellwether Brass Quartet?
Reviews here come from families who have actually sat with a member. If you spent time with them, a few sentences about how it went is the most useful thing the next family can read.
Where Bellwether Brass Quartet travels
Travels to
Downtown / Central · North Side · Northwest Side · West Side · Suburbs · Evanston · Forest Park · Oak Park · Skokie
Bellwether Brass Quartet works across whole areas rather than from one address, so there is no location to show on a map.