Cirque Musica

[Uncle Markie]

There's a new circus on the road and it may be visiting your town.
It doesn't have a circus band - it has a circus orchestra. On some dates they are hiring local symphony orchestras. I recently played it in Trenton NJ with a group called Orchestra of the Stars - surely I am a star, but don't call me Shirley.

Anyway, here's the story: NO animal acts. Some veteran performers, including David Larible late of Ringling Bros., two members of the Wallendas family, the Espanas, etc. The kick is that the acts work to the music, which is quite a variety of symphonic favorites - including Mars from the Planets, Night on Bald Mountain, the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, 182 Overture, William Tell overture, and on and on. Original arrangements are used and yes, there is a track although most of the time it was turned off. The show is fleshed out with novelty tunes and thematic materials - no Merle Evans type stuff other than Entry of the Gladiators, which had no tuba part oddly. You play from original orchestrations with cuts marked for the most part. Everyone was very nice and extremely complimentary to our little band of NJ freelancers. The feel of the show is very "Euro".

The show is out for another two weeks and then we'll see what happens. I got the feeling this was a test run for the bookers. This production seems to come mostly from Dallas TX.

It is politically correct - cute with no chimps, elephants, lions, tigers, or bears.

Bring your earplugs - there are not one, but TWO deafening motorcycle acts in the show.

It was nice to reconnect briefly with Rietta and Lyric Wallenda - I was in Bill Pruyn's circus band for the filming of "The Great Wallendas" back in 1977 - an NBC "movie of the week" wherein the granchildren re-created the famous Wallenda pyramid for the film and Rietta was the lady standing on a chair at the top of the pyramid on the high wire. The Wallendas remain one of the premier circus families and it's nice to see the tradition lives on.

If you get booked to play this you should enjoy yourself - it was a lot of fun.

Mark Heter
Mark Heter