Photo:Middlesex Concert Band and Music Director Mark Olson. (Photo courtesy of Adam Dusenberry/KDS Productions.)
Wakefield, MA – Joy is not the first thought that springs to mind this season for the Middlesex Concert Band after losing our percussion equipment and rehearsal space in October’s First Baptist Church fire in Wakefield. However, this preplanned theme for our March concert is more fitting than we would have thought given that our Fire Relief Fund has reached over $24,000 of the $27,250 goal! The generosity of our family, friends, fans, and other concert bands from as far as Honeoye, NY and New Orleans have indeed given the band reason to be thankful – and joyful.
Join the Middlesex Concert Band as we present a joyous, inspiring, and just plain fun concert. Make a Joyful Noise will be presented at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 10th in Wakefield’s state-of-the-art auditorium in the Galvin Middle School. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. We will have free refreshments during intermission and a 50/50 raffle fundraiser. In addition to the grand prize, several other lucky winners will take home gift cards from our generous sponsors.
Cartoon by Paul Hart will be a thrill for young and old alike as classic cartoon themes are spun together in this medley. The audience will recognize big opening credits, a cat and mouse tease and chase, a strutting swagger, and a big finale. Another of the zanier pieces in the lineup is Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion by P.D.Q. Bach and arranged by Peter Schickele. One of the movements in this selection is largely played on mouthpieces detached from the instruments! Also in the wacky genre for this show will be LOL (Laugh Out Loud) by Robert Buckley where the musicians will get to show off glissandi and other dizzying runs reminiscent of a circus march. A Salute to Spike Jones, arranged by Calvin Custer is a very entertaining piece that samples just about every bell, whistle, and horn in the percussion toy box.
Another group of pieces in this concert will highlight fun dance music, like Bedrich Smetana’s Polka from The Bartered Bride, an opera that celebrates Bohemian peasant life. This concert band arrangement by Gary Parks aims to reanimate the whirling and brightly clad dancers. Pavanne, one of Morton Gould’s most often performed and recorded works, is a jazzy movement from his American Symphonette No. 2, which was originally written for radio performance. Dixieland Jam! is another toe-tapping medley of well-known favorites arranged by Robert Lowden.
The Middlesex Concert Band is a nonprofit, community band made up of more than 50 musicians of all ages who come from throughout Northeast Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. Originally founded in the 1950s as a marching band, the group evolved into a concert band in 1975. Our director is Mark E. Olson. He is also the Director of Bands at Harvard University and the principal trumpet in the Metropolitan Wind Symphony.
Make a Joyful Noise takes place at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, 2019 at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in the Galvin Middle School, 525 Main Street, Wakefield, MA. Doors will open at 2:30 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are free. For tickets, go to http://www.mcbconcertband.org or contact the MCB box office at 781-670-7662.