Thursday, March 26, 2026

Jazz Vocalist Amanda Carr and a New Composition at Spring Pops

Amanda Carr
guest artist

Jazz singer Amanda Carr, an audience favorite, returns for the Concord Band’s annual Spring Pops concert on Saturday, April 11, 7:00 PM at the 51 Walden Performing Arts Center in Concord. The program features Ms. Carr and her fresh interpretations from the Great American Songbook and New York themed songs. Another special highlight is Lilly’s Story, the premiere of a unique composition inspired by a 12-year-old from Brockton, named Lilly, and her family.

Ms. Carr will perform Cheek to Cheek by Irving Berlin, as well as Cole Porter’s Night and Day and Anything Goes.  Amanda also performs vocals on Billy Joel’s New York State of Mind, and a song that Amanda wrote titled Maybe.  With five jazz vocal recordings, Ms. Carr continues to perform as a solo artist and guest host. A true collaborator, Amanda Carr is a coach for vocal students while still writing and composing music.

Luciano Lopez-Parnetti
composer

The Concord Band collaborated with Sing Me A Story, an organization that commissioned Boston Conservatory student composer, Luciano Lopez-Parnetti, to present Lilly’s Story, a new composition that celebrates Lilly’s love of family, food and music. In her story, Lilly imagines a world where differences are not questioned, but embraced.  Lilly’s personal narrative is reflected in Lopez-Parnetti’s intriguing composition through a harmonically rich wall of sound, punctuated rhythms and overlapping patterns.  A remarkable photo montage, created by Lilly herself, will be on display at the concert. The montage explores what it feels like when others make assumptions about her mixed identity, and the challenges of not always feeling fully seen or understood. Both Lilly’s family and composer Lopez-Parnetti will attend the premiere performance.

Continuing with the New York theme, the Concord Band will evoke the vibrant and frenetic energy of New York City with Warren Barker’s New York: 1927, together with selections from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story.  The Band also will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with composer Clare Grundman’s classic work, Spirit of ’76.

The Concord Band’s Spring Pops concert, conducted by Music Director James O’Dell, will be open seating at the 51 Walden Performing Arts Center in Concord, 7:00 PM, Saturday, April 11th.  The audience is invited to enjoy complimentary refreshments in the lobby at intermission and after the concert.  Tickets are $25 for adults, $10 for kids 12 and under, and can be reserved at www.ticketstage.com/concordband.

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Movie Night Livestream

Winter Concert

Saturday, March 14, 2026 • 7:00 PM
The Concord Band
James O'Dell, Music Director and conductor
John Rabinowitz, announcer

View Livestream

Program

Moment for MorriconeEnnio Morricone
arr. Johan de Meij
Catch Me If You CanJohn Williams
arr. Jay Bocook
David Southard, alto saxophone
Night on Bald MountainModest Mussorgsky
arr. Mark Hindley
Lord of the Rings I. GandalfJohan de Meij

Intermission

The Magnificent SevenElmer Bernstein
arr. Roy Phillippe
West Side Story SelectionLeonard Bernstein
arr. W.J. Duthoit
Lord of the Rings V. HobbitsJohan de Meij

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Concord Band Presents "Movie Night"

The Concord Band presents its Winter Concert, titled "Movie Night," on Saturday March 14, 2026, 7:00 pm at the Performing Arts Center, 51 Walden Street, Concord MA. Music Director James O'Dell has selected iconic themes from film scores.

The title theme from John Williams’ jazz-oriented and Oscar-nominated score for Catch Me if You Can was arranged for band by Jay Bocook and features Concord Band alto saxophone soloist David Southard and the Band’s vibraphone and xylophone players. 

David Southard
saxophone

The program includes a medley of movie music by fellow Academy Award winning composer Enrico Morricone, from popular spaghetti Westerns Once Upon a Time in the West as well as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. More Western themes are featured from Elmer Bernstein’s Oscar-nominated score for The Magnificent Seven.

Hollywood has long relied on Broadway adaptations to fill movie theaters. The program will present selections from Leonard Bernstein’s music for the Tony award winning show and 1961 Oscar for Best Score in a Musical, West Side Story, arranged for band by W. J. Dutroit. 

Walt Disney’s animated classic Fantasia is now widely regarded as one of the most significant animated films of all time, in part due to innovative symphonic performances of classical music in an animated feature. For this concert, the Concord Band will play Night on Bare Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky, which featured prominently in the film.

Although Johan de Meij’s band Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings was written some twelve years before the movie trilogy and their scores by Howard Shore, nonetheless characters and action from the popular books and movies will spring to life when the Concord Band plays the first and fifth movements, "Gandalf" and "Hobbits."

The Concord Band is a 65-piece symphonic band that plays at least five indoor and six outdoor concerts each year. The March 14 concert is free with open seating and a requested donation of $20. A complimentary reception will follow the concert. 

Additional information about the Concord Band and the concert can be found at the website www.concordband.org, the blog at concordband.blogspot.com, on Facebook and YouTube.