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Around Town, Concerts, Press Release, Upcoming Events

A Night at the Movies: The Sequel!

Free Concert! 07:00 pm – Sunday, May 05, 2019 at the Center for the Arts

True Believers,

I can’t wait for Spring Concert this year! I’ve been itching to do a movie themed concert ever since I became the conductor of the community band. The last movie themed concert performed by the band was in 2016 with Jennifer Levanduski conducting. That concert featured such classics as “Officer Krupke” from “West Side Story”, the theme from “The Godfather” and music from “Tombstone”. Just like Hollywood, I wanted to do that concert again, but bigger! This concert features only music that has been found in movie sequels, hence the title of our concert, “A Night at the Movies: The Sequel!”

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All of the music selections feature music from movies that have sequels.  Movies like “Jurassic Park”, “Superman”, “Star Wars” and “Back to the Future” have many sequels and feature their main themes in all of them. Some of the more obscure movie sequels in our concert include “Blue Danube Waltz” from “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Wizard of Oz”. Some might remember their respective sequels, “2010: The Year We Make Contact” and “Return to Oz”. “Return to Oz” might be one of my favorite sequels to a beloved classic because of it’s very dark tone and memorable scary moments. Some of our selections will feature themes that are only found in their sequels, such as “Yoda’s Theme” from “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” and music from “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”.

To celebrate our 30 year birthday we have invited our founding conductor, Don Cushman, to conduct a special piece.

This concert is going to be a blast! All of the musicians have been working real hard to bring the power of cinema to your ears. I can’t wait to see you at The Center Theater on Cinco De Mayo!

Excelsior!

-Zach

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Around Town, Concerts, Press Release

Lions & Elephants & Swans…

OH MY! Free Halloween Concert for the Kids.
October 27, – 3:00pm Teton Village, WY at Walk Festival Hall

This is my favorite time of the year. The leaves have changed colors. The wind is howling. All manner of superstitious creatures are making their way out of the shadows. Halloween season is here!

Jackson Hole Community Band 2017 Halloween Concert

To celebrate, the Community Band is performing it’s annual Halloween Concert for the Kids at Walk Festival Hall. Children, adults, and musicians will be dressing up as their favorite characters and listening to the haunting sounds of winds and percussion. We’ll be playing such classic Halloween tunes such as Danse Macabre, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue and music from the movies Dark Shadows and Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Special Appearance by Dancers Workshop Student Performers
This year will also feature a collaboration with Dancers Workshop. Our performance of Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals will have Lions, Elephants, and Swans dancing alongside the band. I would like to thank school director, Eric Midgley, for organizing and rehearsing the dancers for this event.

Sammy Douville (flute) & Jason Wright (saxophone) at the 2017 concert

It wouldn’t be a Halloween concert without our Addams Family sing-a-long. Audience members will be singing the classic tune at the end of the show with a guest singer to lead them. We’ll also invite costumed kids to march their way along the stage to the militant sounds of Gustav Holst’s Mars from his most famous work The Planets. After the show, children will have the opportunity to seek local Teton Village businesses for some trick-or-treat candy.

This year’s Halloween concert is shaping up to be the most challenging and fun that I have ever conducted. I can’t wait to see the ghouls and goblins make their way to the show and have a haunting time!

Boo!

-Zach

Flutes Anna Senecal & Noah Osnos 2017

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Around Town, Concerts, Press Release, Upcoming Events

A Wrinkle in 3/4 Time

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As the season continues, we take the time to reflect on the past. From the dawn of man to the modern day banging of so many percussion instruments. What’s the difference, you ask? Not much. Our upcoming Spring Concert is full of thoughtful moments that reflect upon how far music has come since our caveman roots. From baroque style music like J.S. Bach to impressionist music of Debussy to the classic 1960’s rock n’ roll of the Beatles. There’s so much for the musicians of the community band to learn. And the best part of this learning experience is it’s fun!

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It’s amazing to see musicians eyes light up when they listen to the sounds of medieval modal music being infused with an almost ethereal-like quality of sounds from the woodwinds and percussion (bells and bowls!). Of course, what Jackson Hole Community Band concert doesn’t feature a march or two. This concert will once again feature the sounds of Sousa from his Black Horse Troop. Perhaps not the most well known of his marches, but it does bring that classic Sousa feel from the bottom of your tapping foot. But Sousa isn’t the only one claiming the march music spotlight. This concert also features the music of Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis. Originally a four movement piece, the community band is playing the ambitiously difficult, yet thrilling march movement. Based off of a piano duet composed by Carl Maria Von Weber, Hindemith is a master at transposing the somewhat simple dimensions of two pianos to an entire orchestra, or in this case wind band.

The expanded percussion section, how many faces do you recognize? (Click for larger view.)

Perhaps the most fascinating of pieces lined up for this Spring Concert is a piece by Texas resident John Mackey. His piece, Foundry, shows how much he loves percussion. As the name implies, this piece is a gritty, mechanical piece that features a multitude of percussion instruments. What makes this piece so special to the musicians of the band is it’s need for more percussion players from different sections of the winds. When offered the opportunity, members of the trumpet, saxophone and flute sections offered to chip in their help with the percussion section. This piece represents the future of percussion music and it’s many fascinating colors.

As conductor of the band, I can’t be more excited for our epic journey through time! When April 21st arrives, it will be impossible to wipe the joyous grin from this conductors face! I hope you dear readers will be smiling along with me!

Ciao!

-Zach Singer

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