GREENEVILLE – Savor music from around the world during the kickoff to the Tusculum University Community Band’s fifth season.
Band members rehearse before their concert in May at Niswonger Performing Arts Center.
The band will perform “Heritage in Harmony” Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center. The group will play music from the United States as well as China, the Czech Republic, England, France, Ireland and Spain.
“We are excited to launch another year with this wonderful array of music for our fellow community members,” said Chris Chambers, the band’s director and conductor. “This concert will present another impressive performance from our musicians, who dove right into the songs when we returned from our summer break. We invite the community to join us for a pleasant evening in a beautiful venue.”
The band will play a couple of songs that are well-known in the music community – “Folk Song Suite” by Ralph Vaughan Williams and “Suite of Old American Dances” by Robert Russell Bennett. Band member Scott Farquhar will be featured as a French horn soloist on “Wingspan,” written by Gary Kuo, an American composer.
Here is the full list of songs the band will perform:
- “Folk Song Suite” by Ralph Vaughan Williams
- “Slavonic Dance No. 1” arranged by Robert Longfield
- “Ye Banks & Braes O’ Bonnie Doon” by Percy Grainger
- “Double Happiness” by Joseph Curiale
- “Wingspan” by Gary Kuo
- “Suite of Old American Dances” by Robert Russell Bennett
- “El Relicario” arranged by Robert Longfield
- “Danse Bacchanale” arranged by Jay Bocook
- “Washington Post” by John Philip Sousa
Chambers is an adjunct music professor at Tusculum who played in the community band before becoming its conductor. He has conducted middle school and high school bands at many festivals in the Northeast. He has also conducted and performed in many musicals such as “West Side Story,” “Chicago,” “Damn Yankees,” “Wizard of Oz,” “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”
The band practices before its concert in May. On the right in the front row is Scott Farquhar, who will be soloist for a song at the upcoming concert.
The band’s partnering organization is the Tusculum Community Band Association, which advances the appreciation of music and its performance. This is accomplished through the arrangement and sponsorship of musical concerts and encouragement of the study of music by providing scholarship aid and opportunities for public performances to students.
The band’s other concerts this season will be “Home for Christmas” Tuesday, Dec. 16, in the Marilyn duBrisk Theatre in Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Center at the university; “An Evening with Tony and Oscar” Tuesday, March 3 at Chuckey-Doak High School; and “A Symphonic Spring” Tuesday, May 12, at the NPAC.
The Oct. 21 concert is free, but the band welcomes donations at www.tucommunityband.org.
More information about the university is available at www.tusculum.edu.