June 25, 2010

If you missed the Timber City Band concert last evening, you missed out on a real treat. Director Jay Kahn put together one of the best ensembles in recent years and the group was definitely up to the challenges of the program. You missed a score of Sousa marches, including such well-known works El Capitan, The Thunderer and The Washington Post, as well as some of Sousa's lesser known, but still captivating marches: The Invincible Eagle and The Fairest of the Fair. There was also a tribute to other march composers--Henry Fillmore Americans We and Lassus Trombone, Karl King Barnum and Bailey's Favorite, and E. E. Bagley: National Emblem. Jerry Miller presided over the proceedings with a fabulous cornet solo, Herbert L. Clarke's Over the Waves. Of course, no concert of this sort would be complete without concluding with our national march Stars and Stripes Forever. It was a great joy to be a part of this wonderful concert (yours truly was half of the percussion section and even offered an unexpected solo when one of the cymbals went crashing to the concrete!)

Again I remind readers of the upcoming Tri-State Wind Symphony concert at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday July 1. Our own "Star Spangled Spectacular" promises to be an enjoyable evening of patriotic favorites.