Notes from the Concord Band

Since 1959	P.O. Box 302, Concord MA 01742 978-897-9969 www.concordband.org	Winter/Spring 2003

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Winter Concert

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 Allen—one 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 to Conduct Concord Band

Dr. William H. Silvester Guest Conductor

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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Composer Julie Giroux

Julie Giroux Composer

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, Trumpet soloist

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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My Online Cousin—www.concordband.org

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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Calendar of Upcoming Events

Concerts will be held at 51 Walden, Concord, at 8:00pm.

Winter Concert

Spring Pops

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