Meet the Concord Band Percussion Section

138 Years of Combined Service...and Counting

The Concord Band percussion section— and the percussion sections of large instrumental ensembles of all kinds—may be described in terms of extremes. At one time or another, percussionists are responsible for gathering hundreds of different combinations of pitched and unpitched instruments and beaters. As most drummers will tell you, the most difficult problem they usually face is not in playing their parts, but in setting up and moving between their instruments as quickly as necessary when the section has a limited number of players.

(l to r): Dan Diamond (snare drum), Ken Troup (mallets),
Neil Tischler (drum set, tympani), Buck Grace (bass drum, cymbals),
Steve Polit (tympani, mallets).

The Concord Band’s five percussionists, with tenures of 39, 38, 37, 14 and 10 years, rank 3rd, 4th and 5th longest among all active Band members. They are very well educated—with two doctorates and a handful of other advanced degrees among them. Though they may wish it were otherwise, they are also probably the oldest section of the Band.

2009 Fall Concert

Music from Across the Pond

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The Concord Band

James O’Dell, Music Director

Chuck Holleman, Reciter

Program
Hands Across the Sea	John Philip Sousa; ed. Fennell
English Folk Song Suite	Ralph Vaughan Williams
March “Seventeen Come Sunday” Intermezzo “My Bonny Boy” March “Folk Songs fom Slirset”
Three Songs from Façade	William Walton; arr. O’Brien
Chuck Holleman, Reciter
Popular Song Jodelling Song Polka
To a New Dawn	Philip Sparke
Intermission
Mannin Veen “Dear Isle of Man,” A Manx Tone Poem	Haydn Wood
Irish Suite	Leroy Anderson
The Irish Washerwoman The Minstrel Boy The Rakes of Mallow
“The Earle of Oxford’s Marche” from William Byrd Suite	Gordon Jacob
Selections from “Cats”	Andrew Lloyd Webber; arr. Edmondson
Brighton Beach	William P. Latham

Read all notes from this program...

Hands Across the Sea

Hands Across the Sea was written in 1899 and received its premiere later that year on April 21, at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. The title of this wonderful march is believed to refer to the collective ability of the March King and his musicians to affect people in many lands, as a symbol to countrymen and America’s friends overseas. John Philip Sousa and his band made many European tours beginning in 1900 that included concerts in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Hands Across the Sea was the last march that Sousa conducted with the U. S. Marine Band Orchestra before his death in 1932. (JRO)