We entered this school year amidst a nationwide surge of the COVID Delta variant. This cast a shadow over all band activities this semester. But the optimistic plans that I had made still managed to achieve fruition, almost without exception. Despite indoor masking, rehearsals in bell covers, and a constant background fear of further COVID surges, it really felt like a full return to live concerts across the board.

I began the semester with two guest gigs. First, the Oneonta Community Concert Band presented a special Labor Day concert, funded by the Music Performance Trust Fund and organized in cooperation with the American Federation of Musicians Local 443. This was at 3pm on Sunday, September 5, at Wilber Park in Oneonta, and it earned a write-up in International Musician magazine:

Awakenings – Kimberly Archer

The Sound of Music Selection – Richard Rodgers, arr. Robert Russell Bennett

El Capitan – John Philip Sousa

Stillwater – Kelijah Dunton

Songs from the Catskills – Johan de Meij

Our Hometown Band March – Rene Prinz

The Empire Strikes Back (Finale) – John Williams, arr. Jack Bullock

First Suite in E-flat – Gustav Holst

America the Beautiful – Samuel Augustus Ward, arr. Carmen Dragon

On September 11, I appeared in East Cambridge, MA for the Juventas New Music Ensemble “Memory and Hope” concert. I conducted four pieces on this concert, which marked Juventas’s return to indoor, in-person concerts. It was also streamed:

Back home at Hartwick College, we put on two FULL BAND programs with the Hartwick Wind Ensemble:

WE’RE BACK! Tuesday, October 5 at 7:30pm

Seize the Day – Patrick Burns

Air for Band – Frank Erickson

Chorale and Shaker Dance – John Zdechlik

A Song for Tomorrow – Kevin Day

American Riversongs – Pierre La Plante

DISPATCHES FROM THE ANTHROPOCENE Tuesday, November 16 at 7:30pm, with special guest composer Armando Bayolo

Colonel Bogey – Kenneth Alford, conducted by Tristan Bachorik

Hymn for the Innocent – Julie Giroux, conducted by Robert Johns

Terpsichorean Dances – Jodie Blackshaw

Dispatches from the Anthropocene – Armando Bayolo (world premiere)

We also hosted our Honor Band on Saturday, October 23, back IN PERSON after going virtual in 2020. Here is what these talented high school students played:

New Wade N Water – Adolphus Hailstork

Brooklyn Air – Michael Markowski

In Two Places – Haley Woodrow

Polly Oliver – Thomas Root

We also squeezed in a performance of the first movement of Three Ostinatos by Roger Zare with select members of the Hartwick Wind Ensemble.

I had one more appearance with the Oneonta Community Concert Band, for a Veterans Day concert on November 7. Here’s the rep:

The High School Cadets – John Philip Sousa

Military Escort – Harold Bennett

Remembrance – D. I. D. Choi

Integrity Fanfare and March from No Finer Calling: An Airman’s Symphony – Julie Giroux

March of the Belgian Paratroopers – Pierre Leeman arr. Wiley

Victory at Sea – Richard Rodgers, arr. Robert Russell Bennett

Women of the Podium – Virginia Allen

Hymn for the Lost and Living – Eric Ewazen

Armed Forces Salute – Various

God Bless America – Irving Berlin

The Catskill Valley Wind Ensemble came back as well! After 18 months off, we returned at almost full strength and played a concert on November 14. Here is what we looked at this season:

Radetzky March – Johann Strauss

Our Flirtation – John Philip Sousa

Elegy – John Barnes Chance (carried over from our planned May 2020 program)

Italian Rhapsody – Julie Giroux

Second Suite in F – Gustav Holst

The Italian in Algiers – Gioacchino Rossini

Divertimento – Vincent Persichetti

Fortress – Frank Ticheli

Irish Tune from County Derry – Percy Grainger

Finally, I traveled to Rochester, NY to represent Hartwick College at the NYSSMA Winter Conference in December. (No Midwest Clinic for me, sadly.) I look toward the future with great hope that band will become even more normal and fulfilling in the months and years to come.