Ever have one of those days?

I just got through one of those weeks. And I did not get to prepare a post on community bands because of it. But one of the episodes I had this week has to do with the final two Knightwind Ensemble concerts. So, here's one example of the week's fun!

Many of you know that I help out the Knightwind Ensemble. One of my duties is to rent a truck to move percussion equipment to our concerts. So, back in April I reserved trucks for both our Senior Home concert and the Memorial Day Pops concert. I was assured there would be no problem. Then last week went nuts and everything seemed to be going wrong. I decided that I would call and confirm the truck rentals just to be sure.

Turns out that the national phone number I called passed the rental reservation to the local company just fine. The Senior Home concert will be smooth. However, I also found out that the local company is not open on Memorial Day. The reservation was on their books but they would be closed. They suggested I call the national number again.

The person at the national number took the information and promised me that someone would call back within two hours. Then she gave me the phone number to call in case I missed their call. That was 3 days ago...still no call. But thanks to the person who gave me their number. I get to hassle them tomorrow. At least I have a week to get this straightened out before Memorial Day. With apologies to Linda Ellerbee, "and so it goes".

On another note, Summer band concert season is just around the corner. I'll be logging a few of the festivities right here. If you know of summer band concerts, post them in a reply and we can all enjoy them! Thanks.

Upcoming Concert: Memorial Day Pops Concert

Coming up on Monday May 26th is the Milwaukee County Zoo's 19th Annual Memorial Day Pops concert presented by the Knightwind Ensemble. The concert begins at 1 PM at the Peck Welcome Center on the Zoo grounds. The concert is free with your Zoo admission.


Milwaukee's Knightwind Ensemble plays newer (and harder) music at their formal concerts in November and March. However, every Memorial Day they perform "an old fashioned band concert in the park," except that the park is the Milwaukee County Zoo, and the setting is the Peck Welcome Center, just behind the penguins as you enter the Zoo. Memorial Day weather varies greatly from year to year, but the concert setting in the Welcome Center is always dry and nice. And surprisingly, the sound in the hall is very good.


This year Maestro John Steinke has pulled out some evergreen favorites for the concert, including The Peanut Vendor, Baby Elephant Walk, the Floyd Wherle arrangement of Fandango, a medley of Irish tunes, and music from the Broadway Show Gypsy.


In observance of Memorial Day, the Ensemble closes the concert with their Salute To The Armed Forces, a medley of all five of the service hymns (can you name all five service branches?). Maestro Steinke always requests veterans to stand when their service hymn is played and be recognized by the audience. It is a special way to end a concert....and a season. For once the Pops concert is concluded, the Knightwind Ensemble breaks for the summer. Many members play with summer municipal bands in their home towns.


Bring your Holiday weekend to a musical conclusion by taking in the Knightwind Ensemble, and enjoying a day at the Zoo. And stop by and say hello. I'll be the Knightwind Roadie For The Day, hauling the percussion equipment and driving the truck. You'll see me setting up and taking down equipment.

Upcoming concert: Menomonee Falls Symphony

The Menomonee Falls Symphony Orchestra, a community orchestra in the Milwaukee Area, will present The Many Faces of Vienna on Saturday May 17th at 7:30 PM in the auditorium at North Junior High School in Menomonee Falls. The special guest will be the Orchestra's Young Artist Winner, Britt Johnson.


Every spring, the Menomonee Falls Symphony holds auditions for promising young musicians. Not only does the winner receive a scholarship, they also perform with the orchestra at the last concert of the season. This years winner, Britt Johnson, is a freshman at Colombia University in New York. Her musical studies are at the Manhattan School of Music. She graduated from Neenah High School summa cum laude last year, where she was also an all conference / state swimmer. She will perform the first movement from Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto.


The rest of the concert will feature a variety of music associated with Vienna. Strauss waltzes will be featured in Tales from the Vienna Woods. A more modern approach to Vienna can be seen in Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra. The concert concludes with Beethoven's Symphony Number Seven.


Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for Seniors, and $6 for Students. For more information, please see the Orchestra's web site http://my.execpc.com/~regent/mfso.htm, or call 262-679-0779.

An Upcoming Audition and Something completely different

Audition news from the Milwaukee Festival Brass

Mark May 23rd on your calendar. The Milwaukee Festival Brass will hold auditions for adults wishing to be on their sub list, but there are immediate openings in the group for Bb tuba and Eb tuba. Also included will be auditions for the Milwaukee Festival Brass High School Apprentice Program. This is a new program and looks to be a wonderful way for high school musicians to gain more experience. See the Milwaukee Festival Brass web site for more details: http://www.mfbrass.org/.

A different type of Community Music Group

There is a community music group based in Appleton that is different from all of the groups I've written about before. The group is the Fox Valley Horns, all french horns all the time! The group is made up of many middle and high school students, as well as adults. Everyone volunteers their time to make music, french horn style. I think this group is special because it allows those just starting out on the horn to play with more accomplished and experienced horn players. Everyone has fun...and that's what music should be!


The Fox Valley Horns have a concert coming up on Saturday May 10th at 1 PM in the Bethany Lutheran Church, 520 West Parkway, in Appleton. The featured soloist is Bruce Atwell, professor of Horn at UW Oshkosh. He will perform Jimmy Van Heusen's Here's That Rainy Day. Also on the program is Norwegian Suite, arranged by Cynthia Carr, a former professor of Horn at Lawrence University. The featured piece is an arrangement of the 1812 Overture for Horn Choir. This will be a fun concert and I encourage everyone to attend.


I heard a great story about how the Horn Choir was able to get the music for the 1812 Overture. Last year the Horn Choir performed an arrangement of music from the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves for horns. The performance was captured on video and posted on YouTube. It turns out that a horn choir in Japan saw this and posted their performance of the 1812 Overture as well. Don Krause, the director of the Horn Choir, contacted the group in Japan to find out where they got the music. Turns out that the arranger is in Florida and was kind enough to send the music to Don. And so it goes...


Groups like this are special in my view. Everyone enjoys themselves, good music is made, and young students learn a bunch. It doesn't get any better than this.


See you on the 10th.

It doesn't happen that often

It's always a number of years between their concerts here in Milwaukee...


Last Friday, April 11th, marked a return visit by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band. They performed both Friday night and Saturday afternoon in conjunction with MENC: The National Association for Music Educators conference. We attended the Friday concert and I saw representatives from many community bands around the Milwaukee area: the Knightwind Ensemble, Milwaukee American Legion Band, Milwaukee Concert Band, the Racine Concert Band, and the Milwaukee Festival Brass. And I'm sure that other bands from the area were also represented in the audience.


I've been lucky enough to see the Marine Band perform 4 or 5 times, and I am always impressed by the quality of their performances. No, I take that back: I am blown away by their performances. They may very well be the best symphonic band in the world.


Let me just list as few observations about the performance. The ensemble work is unbelievably clean. This was evident in the performance of Shostakovich's Festive Overture, the Grainger Children's March, and Respighi's Roman Festivals. I was also amazed at the differences in dynamics. There were times when we had to lean forward (from the balcony) to hear the music played at pp, while we were blown away when they played fff. Some of my goosebumps had goosebumps.


There was no downside to the concert, but there was a downside to the audience. The program included the world premiere of Scamp by Melinda Wagner. It is a very interesting piece, mischievious in nature but a lot of fun to listen to (and a bear to play, I bet). Unfortunately, a couple of former Marines in the row in front of us were not interested in the music and were discussing something among themselves. The piece was tough enough to listen to, as there was so much going on, without having to tune out conversation as well. They just did not realize that this part of the program was aimed at the MENC conventioneers (and a few members of community bands in the audience), not at former Marines. What a shame.


Their performance of Respighi's Roman Festivals brought the audience to their feet. After a well deserved standing ovation and a few curtain calls, the Band performed the most appropriate encore: The Marine Hymn.


An evening doesn't get any better than that.

Waukesha Area Symphonic Band Concert April 25

The Waukesha Area Symphonic Band under the direction of Rick Kirby will present a special concert on Friday April 25th at the Shattuck Auditorium on the campus of Carroll College. The concert will feature the winner of the 2008 WASB Concerto Competition, trumpeter Brandon Viliunas. The concert will also benefit Waukesha's Adaptive Community Approach Program. More on that later.


Brandon Viliunas is a Senior at Greendale High School and has been playing the trumpet for 8 years. He has performed with the UWM Youth Wind Symphony and the MYSO Senior Symphony. At Greendale, he participates in jazz band, concert band, pit orchestra, marching band, and pep band. He is a member of the National Honor Society and participates on the Tennis Team for Greendale High School. He'll perform Herbert Clarke's variations on Carnival of Venice.


The concert program, Music From The Silver Screen, will include the Prelude from the 49th Parallel of Vaughn-Williams, music from Porgy and Bess, and swashbuckler music by Antonin Dvorak and John Williams.


WASB has been performing an annual benefit concert for a local charity for a number of years. This year the concert will benefit Waukesha's Adaptive Community Approach Program, which serves adults with physical disabilities in Waukesha County. They support a wide variety of programs from graffiti effacing to lawn and garden work to meal cooking. Certainly a worthwhile recipient.


Tickets are $10 and are available at the door. For more information, please call 262-370-6129.

Did you ever wonder?

Were you ever curious about what happens behind the scenes at a concert? The Knightwind Ensemble concert was Sunday (and went very well, thank you). My job on concert day is all of the things that happen in the lobby. I thought I would list a few of the interesting things that happened this weekend.


Saturday - We picked up the rental truck (to transport all of the percussion equipment) and had to replan our weekend when the rental company told us they no longer allow off-hour truck returns. Took a while, but we were able to complete the change in 3 people's schedules to comply with this surprise (never had that problem before). The dress rehearsal went very well.


Sunday - Arrived at the concert hall and set up the ticket table. We had about 12 to 15 sets of tickets held at Will Call. The good news is that almost all of them were picked up. Even though it was a nice day, we had a good number of "at the door" sales. So far, so good.


Once the concert was underway, I had to change the lobby to the intermission layout, so that people could congregate and visit. We could show off our commendation from the Milwaukee County Board and promote our Friends group.


One of my duties on concert day is to address the audience before the second half begins and alert them to our different fund raising programs. That also went well. The audience laughed in the right places. At the end of my presentation I invited people to stop by and view the Sudler Silver Scroll, the International Award from the Sousa Foundation that we received in 2005. This time three people stopped by to take a look after the concert, including a grade school student just starting in her school band. That's always nice.


After intermission, I set the lobby for people to pass by two of our fund raising programs on their way out. We ask the audience to help us buy new music and we place an old field drum on the table near the center of the lobby. Setting that up quietly is sometimes a challenge!


After the concert, one very nice lady complemented my side burns....that doesn't happen every day!


Just one other note: I was able to hear only one piece of music because of all the activity in preparing the lobby.




Now, wasn't that a fun way to spend a day?