Winter Concert Continues 50th Anniversary Celebration

The Concord Band will present its annual Winter Concert at 51 Walden Street in Concord on Saturday, March 1, 2008, beginning at 8:00 pm. As part of a two year celebration of its 50th Anniversary, the Concord Band is featuring performances of its favorite commissioned works at each major concert. The celebration will climax with the band’s 50th Anniversary Concert in March, 2009. Last fall, the Band began this two-year celebration with performances of two of its commissions—Satiric Dances by Norman Dello Joio and Dichotomy– Impressions of Kerouac by Dan Lutz. The Winter concert will feature compositions the Concord Band commissioned by composers Warren Barker and James Curnow. The concert will also feature guest soloist Ethan Sloane, Professor of Clarinet at Boston University.

The concert will open under the baton of Music Director Dr. William G. McManus with a performance of Triumphant Entrance, composed for the Concord Band by Warren Barker in 1991, and an appropriate selection among the numerous works the Concord Band has performed by this outstanding composer/arranger over the years. The Concord Band’s Assistant Conductor, Paul Berler will take the podium to lead the Band in a performance of Gustav Holst’s First Suite in Eb. This masterwork for band, one of the most popular works in the entire concert band repertoire, is generally regarded as a cornerstone of the great works for band by British composers.

Music Director McManus will return to the stage with clarinetist Ethan Sloane for a performance of Carl Maria von Weber’s Concertino, Op. 26 for clarinet. This concerto is one of the great treasures of the clarinetist’s repertoire and was one of the works that established the clarinet as a leading instrument for the expression of Romantic music. The von Weber Concertino remains today as among the most popular solo pieces for the clarinet.

The first half of the concert will conclude with a performance of From Every Horizon, a tone poem for band by Norman Dello Joio, who composed the very first Concord Band commission, Satiric Dances, in 1975. From Every Horizon is a version of a score done for a film of the same title that was shown at the New York World’s Fair in 1964-65. Dello Joio arranged this exciting work into three short movements which musically portray scenes in New York City.

Assistant Conductor Paul Berler will open the second half of the concert with William Walton’s great concert march, Crown Imperial. This march, typically English in its majestic sonority and stately elegance, was first performed at the coronation ceremony for King George VI, in 1937.

Music Director William McManus will return to the podium with Colours, a six-movement suite for band by Roger Cichy. This is an impressionistic work with each of its six movements representing a particular color. The Concord Band has commissioned Roger Cichy to compose a new work in honor of the Band’s 50th Anniversary. The concert will close with a performance of James Curnow’s Welsh Variants, which was commissioned by the Concord Band and premiered on October 22, 1988, in Sentry Center Auditorium in Concord with the composer conducting.