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Saturday, October 30, 8:00 pm
The Concord Band, under the batons of Music Director Dr. William McManus
and Guest Conductor Malcolm W. Rowell, will kick off its 2004-2005 season
with a concert featuring both classic and contemporary works for concert
band. Also featured in this concert will be Concord Band clarinetist Gina
DePaoli.
The concert will open with Dmitri Shostakovich's composition,
Festive Overture, a work written to commemorate the 37th anniversary
of the October Revolution in Russia. This work, beautifully transcribed for
band by Donald Hunsberger, has become a staple of the concert band
repertory.
Leroy Anderson composed and arranged many works for the Boston Pops
Orchestra. Among these is the ever popular Irish Suite, a six
movement suite based on well known Irish tunes. The Concord Band will be
performing three selections from the suite including "The Irish
Washerwoman," "The Minstrel Boy," and "The Rakes of Mallow."
Anderson was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1909 and conducted the
Harvard Band from 1932 to 1935. The Concord Band performs many of his works
on a regular basis, including Sleigh Ride and A Christmas
Festival, at Holiday Pops.
Gina DePaoli has been a member of the Concord Band since 1997 and has
served on the Band's Board as Secretary since then. Gina graduated cum
Laude from the Boston Conservatory and received her master's degree
from Lesley College. She is an elementary general music teacher in Waltham,
Massachusetts, and is very active in the Massachusetts Music Educators
Association, recently completing a four-year commitment as Coordinator for
the Northeastern Senior District Music Festival. Gina is also President of
the New England Orff Schulwerk Chapter.
Ms. DePaoli will be performing Anne McGinty's Rhapsody for Solo
Clarinet and Band, last performed by the Concord Band in 1994, with
then Music Director (and now Music Director Emeritus) William M. Toland
conducting, and clarinet section leader David Purinton as soloist.
Over the years, the Concord Band has performed many works by composer
Alfred Reed, most recently presenting his Russian Christmas Music and
Armenian Dances, Part 1. In this concert, the Band will perform a
classic work by ReedThe Hounds of Spring, composed in 1980.
This exciting overture was inspired by a poem which is a re-creation in
modern English verse of an ancient Greek tragedy. The musical setting
attempts to capture the twin elements of the poem, exuberant youthful
gaiety and the sweetness of tender love. This will be the first time the
Band has performed Reed's brilliant overture.
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Malcolm W. Rowell guest conductor
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The Concord Band is privileged to welcome Professor Malcolm W. Rowell,
Jr., to the podium to conduct the English band classic First Suite in
E♭ by Gustav Holst. Professor Rowell recently retired as Director of
Bands and Professor of Music Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in
Amherst. In recognition of his professional work, Professor Rowell has
received the National Band Association's Citation of Excellence and the
A. Frederick Martin Award, presented by Kappa Kappa Psi for his
contributions to college bands.
In March 1997, Professor Rowell was elected to the American Bandmasters
Association, the most prestigious organization of its kind in the world. He
frequently serves as guest conductor/clinician/lecturer at state and
regional festivals throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. In
addition to the Holst, Professor Rowell will also conduct Frank Ticheli's
Shenandoah and the great Black Horse Troop march by John
Philip Sousa.
Also included on the program will be the beautiful concert march,
The Sinfonians, by Clifton Williams. This magnificent march was
commissioned by Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America and first
performed in 1960. During his relatively short lifetime, Clifton Williams
contributed many great works to the concert band repertoire.
Mark your calendars now so that you won't miss this exciting evening of
great concert band music.
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Gene Parish
sousaphone |
William R. Phelan
trumpet |
In 2002, the Concord Band Board of Directors introduced the Lifetime
Service Award, intended to honor individuals whose participation, over a
significant span of time, has made a fundamental difference to the Concord
Band. Each Award is expressed in the form of a brief paragraph summing
up that individual's contribution. An Honor Roll has been created and is
displayed prominently in the 51 Walden lobby to keep these individuals in
our collective long-term memory. Past Award recipients have been Bill
Burdine and William Toland (2002) and Carl Getz and Robert Turkington
(2003). On October 30th, Concord Band Lifetime Service Awards will be given
to Gene Parish and William R. Phelan.
Gene Parish played tuba with the Concord Band from its first appearance
at the 1959 Patriots’ Day Parade until the end of 2003. In addition
to his contributions as Band president, FOPAC board representative, Band
historian, and musician, Gene has provided hands-on support for every Band
endeavor, often accompanied by his wife Harriet, who regularly assisted
with Pops and concert receptions. An active ambassador for the Band, Gene
appeared in numerous publicity photos thanks to his ready smile and the
huge Sousaphone wrapped around his shoulders. The Concord Band salutes Gene
Parish for his many years of enthusiastic service.
The Concord Band has long been blessed with many extraordinarily
dedicated members. An exemplar among them is trumpeter Bill Phelan. Bill,
who joined the band in 1964, was not only a valued musician (he once
studied with the cornet soloist from John Philip Sousa's band); he was also
one of the few individuals to serve more than three terms on the Concord
Band's Board of Directors. A gifted carpenter, Bill built stage risers for
the trumpet section and helped with several other construction projects
that will benefit the Band for years to come. Retiring after nearly forty
years of service to the Concord Band, his quiet dedication and generosity
will continue to inspire members for generations.
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Tucked into their printed programs, audience members on October 30th
will find an order form for a CD of that evening's concert. For most of its
45 year history, Concord Band concerts have been professionally
recorded. Band members have been able to buy recordings (originally on tape
cassettes, more recently, CDs) of their concerts. Recognizing that the
quality of the Band's performances has risen over the years, the Band
Board has decided as an experiment to offer the live recording of the
upcoming Fall Concert to the audience that has just heard it.
Those who would like a CD of the October 30th concert will be asked to
complete the order form and leave it where indicated in the 51 Walden
lobby. The prepaid price of $15 per CD includes shipping and
handling. Payments must be received by November 8th. It is anticipated that
the CDs will be shipped via the USPS around December 1st.
The October 30th concert CD will also be of interest to regular Concord
Band audience members who are unable to attend the upcoming Fall
Concert. Simply send your $15 check with your mailing address to the
masthead address, attn: Oct. 30th CD.
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Be sure to use the reservation card enclosed with this mailing to make your
reservations early for the Concord Band's annual Holiday Pops concerts, to
be held at 51 Walden on December 10th and 11th.
There's no better way to celebrate the holiday season than to enjoy an
evening of great music and fun in the festive 51 Walden holiday atmosphere!
Holiday Pops with the Concord Band has become a tradition with many area
families and sells out early. Plan a great evening out with your family,
friends and neighbors ... and the Concord Band. Table seating is priced at
$15 per person ($60 for a table of four) and includes beverages and
snacks. Return your reservation card today! Reservations can also be phoned
in to (978) 897-9969.
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Concord Band Board members Dave Tweed, who reconfigured the Band Music
Library from shelving to filing cabinets; and Librarian, Sue Console, who
requestedand is thrilled withher new filing system.
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On the second floor of 51 Walden, just to the right of the top of the
staircase and just to the left of the Dance Studio, is the Concord Band
Music Library, the purview of Band Librarian Susan Console. While most Band
members rarely visit this room, and audience members never do, it is
crucial to the operation of the Concord Band.
Each year, in more than a dozen distinct concert programs (Fall, Holiday
Pops, Winter, Spring Pops, Independence Day, Boston Festival of Bands,
Fruitlands Museums Series, Belmont and Hudson), the Concord Band plays
approximately 80 to 100 different pieces of music. In a typical year,
60 to 80 of these are taken from the Band's Library of 1,200 selections.
The Library was established with the formation of the Band in 1959.
In recent years, 21 new pieces of music have been purchased, on average,
for performance that year and for subsequent addition to the Library. The
cost of a new piece of music (conductor's score and set of players' parts),
excluding commissioned works, typically ranges these days from $40 to $125,
with a recent average of just over $74. Thus, in recent years the Concord
Band has been spending $1,560 on new music. A quick calculation reveals
that the replacement cost of the music in the Concord Band Music Library is
now more than $89,000!
The contents of the Concord Band Music Library were originally stacked
on shelves. The sets of parts had to be shelved horizontally, because their
"packaging" consists only of a file folder. Removing and returning pieces
from and to the Library was cumbersome, as was keeping the collection in
any kind of reasonable order.
Around the turn of the Millennium, Sue Console first suggested that
storing the Band's music in filing cabinets with hanging files would make
much more sense from just about every point of view. While the Board
agreed, preliminary estimates of the cost of purchasing the requisite
number of legal size filing cabinets seemed prohibitive, and the subject
was temporarily shelved. In a Board meeting somewhat later, the idea of
trying to find used filing cabinets came up. Ultimately, Dave Tweed, who
also happens to be the Band's webmaster, found a source of used legal
sized filing cabinets in New Hampshire. The Board decided that the price
was right and authorized Dave to begin purchasing them. (Dave owns a pickup
truck.)
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The Concord Band Music Library Index and numbering system.
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By mid-November, 2002, the reorganization of the Music Library was well
underway. Sue had devised a numbering and indexing system that decoupled
the physical location of a piece of music from one's ability to find it
based on its title or composer's name. New pieces could simply be added
to the next available drawer slot, and the index, maintained on a PC,
updated.
The transition, as wonderful as it has been, has not been entirely
without incident. In very late 2002, the floor beneath six music-filled
filing cabinets gave way, dropping far enough to damage extensively the 51
Walden lobby ceiling below. It turned out that the Music Library floor
joists had not been adequately fastened to their supporting structure. A
reinforcement of the floor solved the problem after Dave hastily removed
everything from the Library that he had so recently moved in.
The $1,560 the Concord Band must spend each year on new music is but a
small fraction of the $40,000, more or less, it costs to run the Band. If
you'd like to help out financially, please write a check to The Concord
Band and mail it in the enclosed envelope. If you have no return envelope,
simply send your check to the address at the top of this newsletter.
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At 51 Walden Street, Concord, 8:00 pm.
- FALL CONCERT
- Saturday, October 30
- HOLIDAY POPS
- Friday and Saturday, December 10 and 11
for reservations, call (978) 897-9969
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