I had the great pleasure of attending a concert this past weekend of the President's Own at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood NJ. Of course the band was fantastic. What a treat it was to sit on the other side of a concert and to hear musicians perform at such a high level.
What was most interesting to me was although this was a concert for veterans they played some contemporary music. On the program was the Masquerade, Opus 12 by Persichetti and a very interesting piece by William Childs called Concerto for Percussion and Concert Band. This last piece featured Gunnery Sergeant Christopher Rose on a variety of percussion instruments from tympani to xylophone.
I wanted to send out a special thanks to the band for a wonderful performance.
Henry Gertcher
The President's Own concert
-
Tom Holtz
- Push Button Make Sound
- Posts: 742
- Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2004 3:22 pm
- Location: Location, Location!
Thank you, Henry. Glad you enjoyed the show.
We've got a pretty wide variety of stuff on all 3 of our concert programs. The Persichetti is very much 20th century band rep, yet most of our audience can still wrap their heads around it. If not, well, there are 4 Sousa marches on that program, so we're covered.
The Childs percussion concerto has a first movement, IMHO, that is way more (ahem) "contemporary" than anything else we play. That only lasts for the one movement, though, and Chris Rose is an absolute beast. He's an incredibly talented musician. The response for his solo has been very positive.
Reminds me of the old joke-- "...because when the drum solo stops, the bass solo begins!"
We've got a pretty wide variety of stuff on all 3 of our concert programs. The Persichetti is very much 20th century band rep, yet most of our audience can still wrap their heads around it. If not, well, there are 4 Sousa marches on that program, so we're covered.
The Childs percussion concerto has a first movement, IMHO, that is way more (ahem) "contemporary" than anything else we play. That only lasts for the one movement, though, and Chris Rose is an absolute beast. He's an incredibly talented musician. The response for his solo has been very positive.
Reminds me of the old joke-- "...because when the drum solo stops, the bass solo begins!"