Community Band launches a ‘Celestial’ season at kickoff concert

The New Prague Area Community Band’s Kickoff Concert on Sunday, April 23, was the launch site for its season. Director Rush Wagner said during the concert at the New Prague High School auditorium the theme over the next few months is “Celestial.” He explained that will be the stars, planets and the divine.

The community band began the afternoon concert with the Star Spangled Banner.

Music included a medley of music written by John Williams, which included several of the pieces he’s written for the Star Wars movies. Wagner said he wanted to tie in Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” which is a seven-movement orchestral suite with each suite bearing the name of one of the planets in our solar system. “That would have been quite an undertaking,” said Wagner. They decided to include one, “Mars, the Bringer of War,” that Wagner described as “a very powerful, very intense piece of music.” The next piece was “Apollo” that Wagner found while researching music. “I had never heard of it before I started investigating celestial music,” he said, describing it as unusual and rhythmical.

Special guests at the concert were the Tri-City United Valve-ation Army Brass Band, made up of seniors, juniors, some sophomores and freshmen from Tri-City United High School in Montgomery. Under the direction of Erik Root, the band performs music that has its origins in New Orleans, LA, with influences from Funk, Jazz, Rock and others.

Their music included the piece “Spottie” originally by the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble with trumpet player Alex Smisek performing the solo. Next was “Thrift Shop” by Ryan Macklemore, in the style of the Broken Brass Ensemble with the solo by Cade Readmond on the tenor saxophone. Their final piece was “Out of the Red and into the Black,” originally by the Youngblood Brass Band with trombonist Cade Passe playing the solo.

The Valve-ation Roster - includes....

To see more on this story pick up the April 27, 2017 print edition of The New Prague Times.