Friday, February 6, 2015

Winter Concert: Portraits

The Concord Band’s 56th Season Continues on Saturday, March 7th

by George Peter Alexander Healy
Join the Concord Band as we celebrate our 56th year of music making, continuing a season-long exploration of some of the great works for symphonic concert band. Our Winter Concert, Portraits, will be presented at the Performing Arts Center at 51 Walden Street in Concord, on Saturday, March 7, 2015, at 8:00 PM.

The concert features music written between 1943 and 1997 by eminent American composers, each presenting a unique and specific programmatic “portrait”. The concert presents a wide variety of musical styles and genres, and includes some of the very few pieces written for concert band and narrator.

Dichotomy...Impressions of Kerouac by UMass/Lowell Director of University Bands Daniel P. Lutz was inspired by the writings and life of the poet and Lowell native, Jack Kerouac. Commissioned by the Concord Band in 1997 with support from the Lowell Cultural Council, Lutz composed the work to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the writing of Kerouac’s novel On The Road, as well as the 75th anniversary of Kerouac's birth. Eclectic and, at times, other- worldly, the composition is based on the familiar round “Frère Jacques” and is masterfully crafted in four contrasting sections. Lutz includes a nod to the “Beat Generation” with the inclusion of an off-stage jazz tenor saxophone solo accompanied by bongos.