Young Artist Kathryn René to Perform

Katie René
Young Artist

Kathryn (Katie) René, is this year's winner of the Concord Band's Young Artist Scholarship, will perform at the Concord Band's Winter Concert, Saturday March 7 at 8:15pm. The Young Artist Competition is now in its third year. Katie, 16, is a junior at Lowell High School, where she is an honors student recently inducted into the National Honor Society. A flutist for six years, Katie is an active member of the Lowell High Marching and Concert Bands, the Jazz Band and the A Capella Choir. She is also a member of the Chelmsford Community Band, the Chelmsford Flute Choir, and the Timberlaine Flute Choir in Plaistow, NH.

Never one to miss an opportunity to expand her musical horizons, Katie has attended band camp at the Univiversity of Massachusetts at Lowell, where she has studied under David Martins, director of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony, and Prof. Daniel Lutz, whose Concord Band commission, Dichotomy... Impressions of Kerouac, was premiered last fall. She also attended the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy, and hopes to lead the LHS Band on the field in her senior year. Katie is also a member of both the National Flute Association and the Greater Boston Flute Association, and has attended master classes taught by James Galway, internationally recognized flutist, and Fenwick Smith of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Not satisfied to play only one instrument, Katie also plays the piccolo, oboe, baritone horn and piano. Musical talent runs in Katie's family: Her mother, Vanessa René, who is a long-time member of the Concord Band, plays oboe and English horn; her younger brother plays alto saxophone; and her younger sister plays French horn. Upon graduation from high school, Katie plans to attend Boston University, where she will major in Music Education.

A devotee particularly of the Romantic and Impressionist styles of music, Katie has chosen to perform Concertino for Flute Solo by Cecile Chaminade, an Impressionist era French composer. Her flute teacher, Theresa Dovydaitis D'Errico, has encouraged and nurtured Katie's talents in this period, as is apparent in her rendition of the Chaminade.

The Band wishes Katie good luck on her debut. We hope that, like previous Concord Band Young Artists, she will inspire other talented young instrumentalists to apply for this scholarship.

McManus Elected President of MENC Eastern Division

Dr William G. McManus
Music Director

Concord Band Music Director, Dr. William McManus, has been elected President of the Eastern Division of the Music Educators National Conference. Initially designated President-elect, he will assume the position of President of the Division in July, 1999. As President, he will represent the Eastern Division on the MENC National Executive Board and oversee the activities of the Eastern Division, which includes all of the New England States, as well as New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. In the eighty-year history of the Division, only two other people from Massachusetts have been elected to this position: the late Dr. Paul Gayzagian, former head of the Music Education Department at the University of Lowell; and the late Dr. Lee Chrisman, former Chairman of the Music Education Department at Boston University.

A Winter Festival

The first commercial CD published by the Concord Band, A Winter Festival, debuted in 1997. It presents winter holiday favorites under the batons of the Band’s first two Music Directors, the late William M. Toland, Music Director Laureate, and Music Director Emeritus, Dr. William G. McManus. The CD opens with Overture to a Winter Festival, commissioned as a retirement gift from the Band to Bill Toland. Its premiere in December, 1994 is presented here. Alfred Reed’s Russian Christmas Music was introduced to the Concord Band by Dr. McManus in the 1995 performance presented here, his first Holiday Pops with the Band. The piece has become one of the Band’s favorites. Also included are Leroy Anderson’s A Christmas Festival and Sleigh Ride.

Tracks

1. Overture to a Winter Festival (Curnow) 🕪
2. March of the Toys (Herbert, arr. Clark)
3. A Christmas Festival (Anderson)
4. The Christmas Suite (Walters)
5. The Holly and the Ivy (arr. Davis/Longfield)
6. Russian Christmas Music (Reed)
7. Festive Sounds of Hanukah (arr. Holcombe)
8. Holiday Favorites (arr. Lavender)
9. Rhapsody for Hanukah (arr. Bulla)
10. Sleigh Ride (Anderson)
11. White Christmas (Berlin, arr. Edmondson)
12. Auld Lang Syne (arr. Toland)

This CD can be ordered by sending your check, annotated “Winter Festival,” for $15, including postage and handling, to The Concord Band, P. O. Box 302, Concord, MA 01742.