If you missed our Annual March Concert this year, you missed A LOT!

Celebrating 140 years!


If you missed our Annual March Concert this year, you missed A LOT!

1. We picked music that was worthy of a 140th anniversary concert! We started the concert with the Finale from Dvorak'€™s New World Symphony. We played a really fun arrangement of famous mambo pieces. We played a new arrangement of Ol'€™ Man River / Deep River that was written just for us and the wonderful Keith Spencer. We played a transcription of the Largo from Handel'€™s Xerxes that was surprisingly moving. We played a medley of Famous Borgy and Bess tunes by Gershwin. We played an absolutely beautiful and touching ballad called Endless Rainbows. We featured three mallet players in Dance of the Comedians, and three trumpet players in Leroy Anderson'€™s Trumpeters Lullaby. You missed a hauntingly beautiful performance of the theme from Schindler'€™s List, performed by flute soloist, Matthew Angelo. And we played excerpts from Aaron Copland'€™s famous Appalachian Spring. A lot of truly wonderful music!!

2. You missed Maynard Cressman celebrating his 60th anniversary with the band!! He shared with the audience that he has attended over 2,000 rehearsals and over 800 summer concerts with us. When he was presented with a special award from Senator Bob Mensch, and asked if he had any comments, he said something like '€œTime flies when you'€™re having fun'€¦ And I'€™ve had a lot of fun with this band!'€

3. You missed the passing of the baton from Richard Karschner, who is stepping down after 19 years of incredible service as music director'€¦ to Joe Santanello who is excited to take on the role as our new music director. The baton that Joe was no ordinary conducting baton '€¦ this handcrafted baton is an exact replica of the customized batons that were made specifically for the great Leonard Bernstein! Made by the very family that made Bernstein'€™s batons. Richard knew he was giving a very special gift to Joe, but he didn'€™t know that the band contacted the baton makers and had them make another one, that we presented to Richard for his many years of service as well. It was pretty special. We also surprised Richard with the announcement that we will be naming our music library after him, for all the work he did over the years to catalog and organize the hundreds of years of music in our library. So Richard will become our '€œConductor Emeritus'€, so you'€™ll still see him occasionally, and his legacy will live on for a good long time!

4. You missed PBS39 filming the concert! They aired a great 5-minute piece about the band on their primetime show '€œFocus'€ and it was really well done and interesting. Thanks PBS for a job well done!! If you haven'€™t had a chance to see that piece yet, click here: (include link '€“ currently you need to login to Facebook to see it)

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