Trumpeter Natalo Paella to Perform

Guest Artist Natalo Paella
Trumpet

One of Boston's best known free-lance trumpet players, Natalo Paella, will be the guest soloist at the Concord Band's Fall Concert on Saturday, October 26th at 51 Walden in Concord. Mr. Paella's illustrious career includes performing for 15 years with the Boston Pops and Esplanade Orchestras under the direction of the late Arthur Fiedler, as well as the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the batons of Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch, Leonard Bernstein and Erich Leinsdorf.

For 26 years, Mr. Paella was principal trumpet at the Boston Colonial Theater, playing for such musicals as A Chorus Line, Porgy and Bess, Man of La Mancha, Annie, and many others. He has played back-up for Sammy Davis, Jr., Lena Horne, Rosemary Clooney, Sergio Franchi, Jack Jones, and the stars of the Lawrence Welk show under the direction of Myron Floren.

Until his retirement as Professor Emeritus, he was a full professor at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, specializing in Studio Trumpet, Brass Pedagogy, Brass Ensembles, and Studio Jazz Orchestra. He attended the Eastman School of Music and the US Navy School of Music, and was a scholarship student in the Berkshire Tanglewood Orchestra. He earned a Bachelor of Music Degree from Louisiana State University and a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory.

With the Concord Band, Mr. Paella will be performing the Sachse Concertino for E♭ trumpet and brass band and Concertino for Band by Frank Erickson. With any luck, the audience may be able to prompt an encore or two out of him!

Jazz Great Phil Wilson to Appear at Spring Pops

Guest Artist Phil Wilson
Trombone

This year's Spring Pops Concerts should be swinging affairs when legendary jazz trombonist Phil Wilson takes the stage as the Concord Band's guest artist. Phil is an internationally renowned musician who has performed with such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman. He initially came to prominence as first trombonist and jazz soloist with the early '60's edition of Woody Herman's "swinging herd." Wilson recorded 12 albums during his stay with the Herman Band. After 3 years with Herman, Phil joined the Dorsey Brothers Band. In 1965 after nine exhausting years of bus tours and one-night stands, he accepted a faculty position at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

During his thirty years at Berklee, Phil has established himself as one of the pioneers of jazz education. In addition to being a world-class trombonist and jazz educator, Phil is known throughout the jazz world as a first-class composer and arranger. His arrangement of the Joe Zawinul hit, Mercy, Mercy, which was recorded by the Buddy Rich Band, won him a Grammy Award nomination.

Work by Thomas J. McGah to be Premiered

Thomas J. McGah
composer

In keeping with its long tradition of commissioning new works for concert band, the Concord Band will be presenting the world premier of Reflections of Emerson, a new composition by Boston composer Thomas J. McGah. A professor of composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, McGah has published many works in a variety of genres, including several compositions for concert band commissioned by the MIT Symphonic Band. McGah's new work is a unique composition for narrator and concert band based on writings of the great 19th century author Ralph Waldo Emerson, who lived in Concord for many years. Concord Band Music Director, Dr. William McManus, conceived the idea of commissioning a new work based on the writings of Concord authors, and the Band's Board of Directors was successful in obtaining a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council to support the project.

The new composition is a single movement work with five distinct sections, separated by excerpts from Emerson's writings. McGah has attempted to compose a piece to reflect musically the meaning of Emerson's words. The excerpts from Emerson's writing were selected by the composer. In the introduction to the piece, McGah says to the audience: "Let us listen and reflect upon four excerpts from Emerson's writings and ask ourselves the following–Is Ralph Waldo Emerson a man whose words speak to us 'moderns', or do his ideas and beliefs belong only to the past?"

Thomas McGah has been a member of the Berklee faculty since 1973. He holds memberships in a number of professional and musical organizations, including the Society of Composers; the International Alban Berg Society; and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).