PCMS Winter Band Concert 2015

The 6th grade band has been playing since August, and they've been working hard! They opened the concert with "A Seven Note Medley," arranged by Bill Simon, which included Yankee Doodle, Old MacDonald, Lightly Row, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Ode to Joy. Every instrument got to play the melody on at least one song.

The 6th grade band's next piece was "Holiday Sampler," arranged by John O'Reilly and Mark Williams. This minute and a half medley included snippets of O Come All Ye Faithful, Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, O Come Little Children, Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, and Good King Wenceslas.

"Holiday Sampler," performed by the 6th grade band, conducted by Mrs. Michelle Henslin

The final 6th grade piece was "Constellation March" by Joseph Compello. This piece had some fun drum breaks and a trumpet soli at the end. Six trumpets came out front to play the memorized soli. I was proud to see that two of them were former students of mine from Lannoye and two of them were former students of mine from Hillcrest!

The 7th grade band started their portion of the concert with "Star Wars" by John Williams, arranged by Doug Adams. The 7th graders have been an extremely dedicated group, taking advantage of extra times to come in and practice. This resulted in the band being able to learn triple meter, a concept they usually don't do until the spring. Thanks for the fun 6/8 piece, John Williams!

"Star Wars," performed by the 7th grade band, conducted by Mrs. Val Spaulding

"Sing a Song of Christmas," arranged by James Curnow, was the second piece on the 7th grade's program. It was a medley of Angels We Have Heard On High, Deck the Halls, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and Sing We Now of Christmas. The students got all sorts of articulation practice on this one!

The 7th graders closed their portion of the concert with "Terracotta" by William Owens. This piece was written to portray the building of the Terracotta Army of ancient China, which took 700,000 workers almost 40 years to complete. Listen for the harmonic tension that represents the workers' stress.

Part of "Terracotta," performed by the 7th grade band, conducted by Mrs. Val Spaulding

The 8th graders performed four pieces. Their first piece was Sandy Feldstein's "Blues March." Their second piece was a Chip Davis (founder of Mannheim Steamroller) arrangement of "O Little Town of Bethlehem," featuring solo flugelhorn. James Kinyon's "Suffolk Celebration" was next on the program. This piece got its name because it was commissioned by a middle school in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. (I thought that was neat - my mom is from Hicksville, NY, which is close to Suffolk County. My grandparents, aunt, uncle, and a few cousins live in Suffolk County, and another uncle and a few cousins live just west, in Nassau County.) The final piece on the program was the lighthearted "Sledder's Carnival" by Len Orcino.

Part of "Suffolk Celebration," performed by the 8th grade band, conducted by Mr. Tim Kozlovsky

Congratulations to all of the middle school band students and directors on a well-performed concert! Best of luck for the rest of the year, and I look forward to hearing you play again on May 3!