David Purinton, Clarinet Soloist

David Purinton
clarinet

David likes to think of himself as a classic example of the value and importance of music education in the early years. David started clarinet in the fourth grade in the Concord school system, continued through high school, and went to Lowell State College as a music major. A career in music did not follow, but because of his background in instrumental music, he joined the Concord Band in 1973 and has played with the band for the past 42 years. David became principal clarinetist and concertmaster of the band about 20 years ago, and enjoys the challenge of playing difficult music well, and also the camaraderie of the group. He is grateful for all of his experiences with the band and would like to see parents support music education programs and encourage young students to take up an instrument or choral music. The skills they learn can provide a lifetime of enjoyment as they have for David.

About the Concord Band

THE CONCORD BAND was founded in 1959 as a marching unit for Concord’s Patriot’s Day parade, but since 1970 has been exclusively a concert organization, playing fourteen or more concerts each year. The sixty-five-member Band performs regularly at its permanent home, the Performing Arts Center at 51 Walden Street in Concord, at its summer home at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts, and at Concord’s “Picnic in the Park” on Independence Day. The Band has also played summer concerts in the towns of Belmont, Bolton, Hudson and Littleton, Massachusetts, and Milford and Nashua, New Hampshire. The Concord Band, once described by then University of Massachusetts Director of Bands Malcolm W. Rowell as “a wonderful ensemble with a marvelous history...a cultural treasure,” also participates frequently in the annual Boston Festival of Bands held in Faneuil Hall each June.

In 2013 the Concord Band received the Sudler Silver Scroll from the John Philip Sousa Foundation. This award “recognizes community concert bands of outstanding musical excellence” and is “North America’s most prestigious award for community concert bands”. The Concord Band was the first community band in New England to receive the Sudler Silver Scroll.

Members of the Band represent many area communities and a wide variety of professions. Band members have played in the organization for an average of nearly sixteen years; sixteen have been members for twenty-five years or more. Many are alumni of prestigious college, military, or professional bands.

Over the years, the Band has engaged numerous noted guest conductors. These have included Frederick Fennell, William Revelli, Arnald Gabriel, Leonard B. Smith, John Corley, Willis Traphagan, Peter Hazzard, Lee Chrisman, James Curnow, Steven Grimo, Thomas G. Everett, Alfred Dentino, Christopher Morehouse, Paul Berler, William H. Silvester, Malcolm W. Rowell, Steven Barbas, Elliot Del Borgo and Keith Brion.

Lt. Col. Steven Grimo, then commander of the US Air Force Academy Band, has described the Concord Band as “true Patriots and the Soul of New England. The Concord Band is truly a Community Band with a professional attitude. They enjoy the experience of making music and know how to Make it Happen!”

Since 1967 the Band has either commissioned or has had written for it 79 new works for symphonic wind ensemble—possibly more than any other community band in the world. Such works have been written by composers Norman Dello Joio, Peter Hazzard, Richard Cornell, Robert Sirota, John Bavicchi, Douglas Toland, Kurt Phinney, Warren Barker, John Higgins, James Curnow, Thomas J. McGah, Dan Lutz, Stephen Bulla, William Gordon, Lewis Buckley, Julie Giroux, Elliot Del Borgo, Jerry Seeco, Roger Cichy, Andrew Boysen, Jr., Rene Pfister, et al, and Jerry Vabulas, as well as by the Band's Music Director Laureate, the late William M. Toland, and Music Director Emeritus, Dr. William G. McManus.

The Concord Band’s published CDs, A Winter Festival, The Best of the Concord Band in Concert: 1992-1994, and The Concord Band Salutes America—as well as concert audio and video recordings, limited edition discs available to friends of the Band—are a great way to preserve one’s memory of the Band.

Band Members Featured in Fall Concert

By Ken Troup

The Concord Band begins its 2016-17 season with a concert entitled "Suite Spots". The concert, led by Music Director James O'Dell, will take place at 51 Walden, The Performing Arts Center in Concord, MA, at 8:00 PM, Saturday, October 22, 2016. Admission is free; contributions are welcome at the door. Two long-time band members are featured in solos: Dan Diamond, the longest serving member of the Band, percussion section leader, and member of the Board of Trustees, will play the snare drum solo in Maurice Ravel’s Boléro. David Purinton, a member since 1973, will play the clarinet solo in Carl Maria von Weber’s Concertino. The program also includes four suites written for band and three transcriptions for band to round out the “suite spots.”

Dan Diamond
percussion

Boléro is one of Ravel’s most recognized works and is based on the musical form and Spanish dance of the same name. With a repeating ostinato and snare drum accompaniment, featuring percussionist Dan Diamond, this arrangement by Jay Bocook slowly builds from piano to fortissimo, all the time adding variations in instrumentation. The final climax brings all musical forces to bear as the work crescendos to a dynamic conclusion. Dan Diamond played in bands and orchestras in Springfield schools and MIT before settling in the Boston area and joining the Concord Band in 1970. He is a Concord Band Lifetime Service Award recipient, honoring his decades of service to the band as percussionist, board member, fundraising chairman, newsletter editor, and video executive producer and editor, just to name a few.

David Purinton
clarinet

The Weber Concertino, Opus 26, was written in 1811 and was arranged for band by Bruce R. Smith. This single-movement work features solo clarinet in a series of distinct and complementary variations. Weber composed two clarinet concertos the same year in his native Germany and was a prominent opera and orchestra composer until his death from tuberculosis in 1826 at the age of only 39. David Purinton, the clarinet soloist, is a Concord native who now lives in Devens and is the concertmaster of the Band.

Boston Liberties, by Julie Giroux, a prominent band composer originally from Massachusetts, was commissioned by The Concord Band in 2003. Most significant for this fall, the fourth movement of the suite pays tribute to Boston Light, the oldest lighthouse in the U.S., which just celebrated its 300th anniversary in September. Titled “A Penny a Ton,” the movement notes the early tax on cargo that helped pay for and maintain Boston Light. The other movements depict images of Boston Harbor and the Old Granary Grounds Cemetery, as well as a tribute to John Adams’ role as defense counsel for the British soldiers following the Boston Massacre, when he said “Facts are Stubborn Things.”