Notes from the Concord Band

Since 1959	P.O. Box 302, Concord MA 01742 978-897-9969 www.concordband.org	Winter/Spring 2007

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Winter Concert

featuring Trombone Virtuoso Don Lucas

Saturday, March 3

The Concord Band will present its annual Winter Concert at 51 Walden Street in Concord on Saturday, March 3, 2007, beginning at 8:00 p.m. This year, the Concord Band has been featuring the music of American composers J. Clifton Williams and W. Francis McBeth. Composer McBeth once described Clifton Williams as the "Godfather" of American concert band music. This concert will feature three compositions by Clifton Williams, as well a special performance by trombone virtuoso Don Lucas.

Paul Berler, Assistant Conductor of the Concord Band, will open the concert with Clifton Williams' Strategic Air Command March, one of very few marches Williams ever composed, followed by his Symphonic Dance No. 3, Fiesta. Fiesta depicts the pageantry of Latin American celebrations' street bands, bull fights, and bright costumes. This work is one of five symphonic dances which Williams composed for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, in which Clifton Williams played French horn for many years. Fiesta was subsequently rescored for concert band.

Dr. William G. McManus, Music Director of the Concord Band, will take the podium to conduct Caccia and Chorale, the last work composed by Clifton Williams before his untimely death in 1976. In the notes presented with the conductor's score to this piece, Joseph M. Tate writes, "knowing the seriousness of his illness when he began this work and feeling that he might not survive an impending operation, Williams intended to write only the Caccia. However the surgery seemed to be successful and the Chorale movement was thus composed as a personal prayer of thanksgiving along with a sincere plea for ethical regeneration by all mankind."

To close the first half of the concert, the band will perform Kaddish, by W. Francis McBeth. Kaddish, from the Aramaic and Hebrew word for "holy," is the Jewish prayer for the dead. McBeth composed this work as a memorial for J. Clifton Williams, his beloved teacher. The "heartbeat" that runs throughout the piece in the percussion section is a rhythmic quote from a measure in the Chorale of Williams' Caccia and Chorale.

The second half of the concert will open with a performance of Tatarian Dances by composer Elena Roussanova Lucas. Elena Lucas, a native of Moscow, teaches theory and composition at the Berklee College of Music and Boston University. Tatarian Dances is dedicated to her mother, Lidia Roussanova, who still resides in Moscow. The Tatarian people are descendents of the nomadic clans of Genghis Khan who came from Manchuria/Mongolia. They traveled northeast, settling in Russia in the ninth century. The Tatars live on the fertile and mineral-rich lands of the Volga River region, the Ural Mountains, and Siberia. This area, called Tatastan, is now a republic in the Russian Federation. Tatarian music reflects the regions rich natural resources. This four movement suite expresses the many traditions of the Tatarian holidays. The folk music is fresh, lively, and melodious. Composer Elena Lucas resides in Boston with her husband, trombonist and tonight's soloist, Don Lucas.

The concert will close with a performance of William Goldstein's Colloquy, a work for solo trombone and symphonic band. This work was commissioned by the United States Army Band and premiered before 12,000 people at an outdoor concert in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1967. The New York Premiere took place at Carnegie Hall. Trombonist Joe Alessi of the New York Philharmonic recently recorded Colloquy as did Ron Barron of the Boston Symphony Orchestra a few years earlier. The Concord Band is honored to feature trombonist Don Lucas, Chair of the Brass, Woodwinds and Percussion Department at Boston University, in tonight's performance of this masterwork for trombone and symphonic band.

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Don Lucas Trombone Soloist

Don Lucas: Trombone Virtuoso

Don Lucas, originally from Falls Church, Virginia, was educated as a Fulbright Scholar at London's Guildhall School of Music ("Premiere Prix" and Advanced Solo Studies Diplomas), Texas Tech University (M.M.& B.M.), North Texas State University, The University of Houston and The Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.

Mr. Lucas has performed regularly with The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (three seasons), Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, the American Classic Trombone Quartet (founder) and also performed with The Empire Brass, Minnesota Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, New England Brass Band and others.

Internationally, Mr. Lucas has performed recitals as soloist and taught masterclasses throughout the world, including extensive engagements in the United Kingdom, Russia and Korea.

In the United States, Mr. Lucas has performed frequently as a soloist, recitalist, adjudicator and clinician. He has appeared as a soloist at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Terrace Theatre at the Kennedy Center, the Juilliard School, and the Eastman School of Music, to name a few. He has performed as a soloist with the U.S. Army Orchestra and Band ("Pershing's Own"), the U.S. Naval Academy Band, the West Point U.S. Military Academy Band, as well as many other bands and orchestras throughout the United States.

Mr. Lucas' honors include the only Premier Prix Diploma ever awarded to a brass player in the history of the Guildhall School of Music (London). Among the many other awards Mr. Lucas has received are the Bronze Medal L'unamite & Finalist, Toulon International Solo Competition; First Prize Winner, ITA Frank Smith International Trombone Solo Competition; and First Place "Fellow", Harmony Ridge Brass Festival.

Mr. Lucas is Trombone Professor and Chair of Woodwinds, Brass and Percussion at Boston University. Previous teaching appointments include Texas Tech University, Eastern New Mexico University, Sam Houston State University & public school teaching in Fairfax County, Virginia, Wake County, North Carolina, and Brenham & Southland, Texas. Mr. Lucas has recently been elected as President-Elect of The International Trombone Association.

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The Concord Band performs at 51 Walden

Philanthropy in the Arts: The Giants Get Most of the Attention — Why One Very Small Nonprofit Should Get Yours

A letter from a Wellesley resident to the Boston Globe in early December caught the eye of your Editor, who also happens to be responsible for raising funds for the Concord Band. We call your attention to two key sentences from his letter: "Major players at the top of the nonprofit sector...are all aggressively growing support, capturing the imagination of wealthy donors and the public alike with visions that soar to previously unimaginable heights. Unfortunately, they are breaking new barriers at the expense of smaller nonprofits."

With an annual budget of about $40,000, the Concord Band is certainly one of the smaller nonprofits to which the Globe letter referred. On the other hand, we believe that the mission of the Band makes it as worthy of both your attention and financial support as are the largest arts organizations to which you currently contribute.

The Concord Band has three principal objectives. The first objective is to provide an opportunity for wind and percussion instrumentalists beyond high school age to continue in their development and enjoyment of their participation in a large ensemble. Those who go on to college can usually continue with their musical activities there. Once they have completed their educations, for all but those who become professional musicians, the only way to continue to play in a large wind ensemble is to join a community band. These range in seriousness from the "town marching band and chowder society" at one extreme to bands like the Concord Band ("the community band with a professional attitude") at the other. Thus, the Concord Band represents an outstanding opportunity for the amateur wind or percussion instrumentalist who takes his or her music seriously. Members of the Band — from more than forty area towns — contribute not only a lot of their time but also substantial financial resources to keep the Band going.

The second objective of the Concord Band is to provide to the community an opportunity to hear the finest in concert band music at modest cost through concerts both in Concord at its permanent home at 51 Walden and at its summer home at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard.

Music for symphonic wind ensemble, unlike that for orchestra, has no greater-Boston-based professional ensemble to perform it on a regular basis. Until recently, the Air Force Band of Liberty was such a professional organization, but budget cuts have reduced that fine Hanscom Field-based concert band to 40 members, limiting the literature it has the personnel to play. The Concord Band does its best to fill that role for this area. Does the Band succeed in presenting the finest in concert band music to the community? An independent review of the Band's October, 2006, concert, appearing in the Concord Journal, begins, "The Concord Band delivered a splendid concert last Saturday, with fine playing of a program that shined a spotlight on guest composer and conductor Elliot Del Borgo."

Terry Everson trumpet soloist

To achieve this second objective, in addition to assembling 65 serious musicians led by a first-rate professional (the Band's Music Director is Dr. William G. McManus, Associate Professor of Music at Boston University and Chair of the BU Music Education Department), requires first rate soloists and guest conductors. Soloists over the years have included Kenneth Radnofsky, the Back Bay Brass Quintet, Robert Searle, Michelle French, Silvestro D'Urbano, Frederick Moyer, Gary Spellisey, Phil Wilson, Natallo Paella, Ronald Barron, Lynn Klock, Terry Everson and Jerry Seeco. Guest conductors have included such luminaries as Frederick Fennell, William Revelli, Arnald Gabriel, James Curnow, Steven Grimo, William H. Silvester, Malcolm W. Rowell and Elliot Del Borgo.

The Concord Band's third principal objective is its commitment to enlarging the literature for symphonic wind ensemble through the commissioning of new works. Since 1967 the Band has either commissioned or has had written for it nearly fifty new works for symphonic wind ensemble — possibly more than any other community band in the world. Commissioned works have been written by such established composers as Norman Dello Joio, Peter Hazzard, Richard Cornell, Robert Sirota, John Bavicchi, Warren Barker, John Higgins, James Curnow, Stephen Bulla, William Gordon, Lewis Buckley, Julie Giroux and Elliot Del Borgo, as well as the Band's Music Director Emeritus, William M. Toland, and current Director, William G. McManus.

Although all of the members of the Concord Band are volunteers (its Board consists only of Band members), almost all of its activities cost money. It is rather amazing that the Band can do what it does each year for not much more than $40,000. Nevertheless, to raise its annual budget, the Band cannot rely solely on the income from ticket and CD sales and sponsored concerts. If you agree that the Concord Band is one very small nonprofit worthy of your attention, please write a check to the Concord Band for the amount you deem appropriate and mail it in the enclosed envelope. If you have no return envelope, please send your check to the address in the masthead of this newsletter.

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Can't Attend the Winter Concert? Enjoy it on CD!

Concert attendees who would like a CD of the March 3rd concert will be asked to complete an order form and leave it in a designated box in the 51 Walden lobby. The prepaid price of $15 per CD includes shipping and handling. Payments must be received by March 16th. It is anticipated that the CDs will be mailed in early April.

The March 3rd concert CD will also be of interest to regular Concord Band audience members who are unable to attend the upcoming Winter Concert. Simply send your $15 check with your mailing address to the masthead address, attn: March 3rd CD.

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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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