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:
The Sound of Music Selection – Richard Rodgers, arr. Robert Russell Bennett
El Capitan – John Philip Sousa
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
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
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
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
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.