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Winter Concert
Dr. William H. Silvester to Conduct Concord Band
Composer Julie Giroux
Sam Sheeler, Trumpet soloist
My Online Cousinwww.concordband.org
Calendar of Upcoming Events
Saturday, March 8
The Concord Band has a long history of featuring outstanding soloists,
commissioning new works, and bringing in top guest conductors. This year's
Winter Concert, which will be held at 51 Walden Street in Concord on
Saturday, March 8th, will feature all three. The band will be presenting
the world premier performance of a new work for concert band by composer
Julie Giroux entitled Boston Liberties. Dr. William Silvester,
conductor of bands at the State College of New Jersey and one of the top
college band directors in the country, will take the baton to conduct the
Band during the second half of the concert, and Sam Sheeler, one of the
Band's outstanding first trumpet players will be the featured soloist.
The concert will open under the baton of Music Director, Dr. William
G. McManus, with A Festival Prelude, a wonderful composition by
Alfred Reed. It was written in commemoration of the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the Tri-State Music Festival, held annually in Enid,
Oklahoma. Since its first performance, A Festival Prelude has come to be
regarded as one of the composer's most brilliant works.
The Concord Band percussion section will be featured in
Repercussion, a powerful composition by Robert H. Pearson. This
emotional work has two distinct sections: a slow opening section, and a
fast allegro section, building to a tremendous climax. The percussion
section introduces both sections of this exciting piece.
Trumpeter Sam Sheeler will be the featured soloist in a performance of the
first movement of Oskar Bohme's Concerto in F Minor. Originally
composed for trumpet and orchestra, this work was arranged for trumpet solo
and wind ensemble by Geoffrey Bergler. With it's long melodic lines and
virtuoso passages, this concerto (opus 18) stands as the only authentic
trumpet concerto of the Romantic period.
The first half of the concert will close with the world premier of
Boston Liberties by Julie Giroux. This new Concord Band commission
is a four-movement suite, each movement relating to the history of Colonial
Boston. The movements are entitled "Boston Harbor", "Facts Are Stubborn
Things", "Granary Grounds", and "A Penny A Ton". Julie Giroux is a
brilliant young composer who has been nominated for seven Emmy Awards (see
related story).
The second half of the concert will open with David Holsinger's
outstanding composition, Havendance. This composition ranks second
only to the Phillip Bliss Hymnsong as Holsinger's most performed
work. Holsinger wrote this piece in 1983 for his daughter, Haven Rebecca,
who, at eight years old, would constantly dance and twirl around the
house. Havendance is pure energy, full of mixed meters and exciting
riffs. It celebrates all the attributes we associate with the composer's
style.
Guest conductor William Silvester (see related story) will take the
podium to conduct the remainder of the concert. Silvester will open with
Robert Jager's classic Third Suite. The three movements, "March",
"Waltz", and "Rondo", creatively vary from the styles normally associated
with each of these titles. It is a very tuneful work, and through the use
of unusual meter changes, provides a challenge for both the players and the
conductor.
American Variations by Jerry H. Bilik, is based on the familiar
Scottish folk tune, Barbara Allenone of the earliest popular songs in
America. Bilik weaves this melody into a series of stylistic settings
representing the diverse cultural heritage of the American people.
The concert will close with Robert Jager's exciting Esprit De
Corps, commissioned by the United State Marine Band. Based on "The
Marine's Hymn", Esprit de Corps is a kind of fantasy march, as well
as a tribute to the Marine Band.
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Dr. William H. Silvester Guest Conductor
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Dr. William H. Silvester has a wide range of experience as a performer,
conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and music educator. His background
includes many years in the public schools at all levels and as a college
band director. He has appeared as a guest conductor throughout the United
States, Canada, and Europe. Dr. Silvester's expertise is in considerable
demand with over 30 guest performances annually. In addition he has
conducted the Russian Army Band, The US Army Band, The US Army Field Band,
and the Marine Band at Quantico.
At The College of New Jersey, Dr. Silvester conducts the Wind Ensemble
and teaches conducting and music education courses. For fifteen years
Dr. Silvester served as the Supervisor of the New Jersey Governor's School,
Division of Music, (accelerated school for high school students) and
conducted the Governor's School Wind Ensemble. As an educator, he has been
a member of state music boards in five different states and has been the
Eastern Division Chair of the National Band Association (NBA) and New
Jersey State Chair for over fifteen years. His College of New Jersey bands
have performed at numerous state and national conventions including those
of the Music Educators National Conference and the New Jersey Music
Educators Association. In addition, the Wind Ensemble has performed for the
College Band Directors National Association conventions and has performed
often at venues throughout the eastern United States.
Dr. Silvester is a member of the prestigious American Bandmasters
Association and serves as the permanent conductor of All American Youth
in Concert European touring ensemble.
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Julie Giroux Composer
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The most recent work to be commissioned by the Concord Band is Boston
Liberties by composer Julie Giroux. Julie was born in Fairhaven,
Massachusetts, and was raised in Phoenix, Arizona. She received her formal
education at Louisiana State University and Boston University. She has
studied composition with John Williams, Bill Conti, and Gerry Goldsmith to
name a few. Julie published her first piece at the age of nine. She began
composing, orchestrating, and conducting for television and films in
1985. She has composed music for the Emmy award winning mini-series
North and South as well as Dynasty, The Colbys, and
for the films Karate Kid II and Broadcast News. She received
her first Emmy nomination in 1988 for North and South, Part II. She
has been nominated for seven Emmy Awards.
A Member of ASCAP, Julie has credits for more than 100 film and
television programs. She has also arranged for Celine Dion, Liza Minelli,
Madonna, Billy Crystal, Michael Jackson, and many others.
Julie is an extremely well rounded composer, writing for solo
instruments as well as symphony orchestras. She began composing for concert
band in 1983 and has published numerous works for professional wind
ensembles, military bands, colleges and public schools.
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Sam Sheeler joined the Concord Band trumpet section in 2002 after moving
to Massachusetts from Pennsylvania. A talented musician, Sam plays both
trumpet and double bass and has performed extensively with both
professional and non-professional musical organizations. As a senior in
high school, Sam played first chair trumpet in the Pennsylvania Southern
Division Band as well as principal bass in the Southern Division
Orchestra. In 1974, he won the Harrisburg Symphony Youth Soloist Concerto
Competition.
He attended Eastman School of Music in Rochester New York, where he
studied with Sidney Mear, former principal trumpet in the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra,
Sam has performed with the Maryland Symphony, the Richardson (Texas)
Symphony, The San Marcos (Arizona) Symphony, and the famous Allentown
(Pennsylvania) Band.
Sam lives in Hudson and is a computer aided design software engineer at
Intel.
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As publications go, both my online cousin, www.concordband.org (or WCO
as he is known to the family), and I are relatively young. I'm a teenager,
having been born in the autumn of 1989. WCO is six years younger, first
appearing on the scene in 1995. I am an example of what marketing gurus
might call a semi-intrusive medium. That is, I show up in the mail
to make my presence known, but you still have to take the trouble to read
me. WCO is strictly non-intrusive: You have to decide to read him. But he
can do things I can only dream about!
While I am mailed twice a year to about 3,200 homes and businesses, he
can be looked at any hour of the day or night by hundreds of millions of
people anywhere on the earth, and (for all I know) other planets as well.
And while my content must be finalized, and made as close to error-free as
possible no later than seven to ten business days before mailing (for which
we must allow a month prior to each major concert), his content can be
changed on a moment's notice. Which, dear reader, brings me to my purpose
here: The Concord Band expends a lot of energy making useful information
available to you through our website. Please take advantage of it.
WCO was created by one computer scientist/Band member, saxophonist
Dr. David Southard, and since May, 2001, has been updated and managed by
another, Board member and trombonist/keyboardist David Tweed. The site was
initially created as an unanticipated gift to the Band, but quickly became
a useful source of information not only for Band members, our Board, and
members of our local audiences, but also for the many individuals around
the United States and the world who do various kinds of research on concert
bands.
Because very few Band members do not have access to the Internet, the
Concord Band website has now become an integral and official part of the
administration of the Band. It is used to maintain rehearsal and concert
schedules as well as the Band roster, with address changes submitted
directly by individual members. WCO also simplifies and secures the
transmission of email messages to Band members and the Board, making it
unnecessary for individual members or the Board to track email address
changes and making announcements to the entire Band quite easy. The website
has also become a repository for Concord Band archival information and
photographs.
Local audience members can use the website to obtain program listings
for upcoming programs, which is particularly useful during June and July,
when the Band plays ten or more concerts which receive little individual
publicity. Supporters of the Band as well as others interested in
recordings of music for symphonic wind ensemble can also read descriptions
of and listen to sound samples from the two CD's the Concord Band has
released to date. The second of these became available only this past
September. To our audiences and beyond, WCO also offers a database of
program notes, a useful research tool, and biographies of guest conductors
and soloists.
Just as in the supposed old Chinese proverb, a picture is worth
10,000 words (it was actually a slogan invented in 1921 by an American
advertising executive), no amount of textual description is as good as an
actual visit to a website. Please visit ours, and let us know how we can
make it even more useful to you.
Although webmaster Tweed volunteers his time in maintaining and
improving www.concordband.org, it costs real money to reserve its domain
name and to pay for its hosting on an Internet server. To help with those
expenses and the myriad others that constitute the Concord Band's $40,000
annual budget, please write a check for as much as you can afford to the
Concord Band and return it in the enclosed envelope. If you have no return
envelope, simply send your check to the address at the top of this old
fashioned newsletter.
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Concerts will be held at 51 Walden, Concord, at 8:00pm.
Winter Concert
Saturday, March 8,
51 Walden, Concord
8:00 PM
For tickets call (978) 897-9969
Spring Pops
Friday, April 11,
sponsored by the Concord Rotary Club.
For tickets call Beth Sheldon at the Best Western Hotel:
(978) 369-6100
Saturday, April 12,
sponsored by the Emerson Hospital Auxiliary.
For tickets call (978) 287-3019
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