Mt. Prospect Community Band to perform 'audience requests' Nov. 16

The Mount Prospect Community Band will perform an indoor concert this Sunday in a reprise of an outdoor event that was canceled during the summer due to weather.

"A Concert of Audience Requests" will begin at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, at St. Paul Lutheran Church at 100 S. School St. in Mount Prospect. Tickets can be obtained in advance from the Mount Prospect Park District RecPlex at 420 Dempster St. or from any band member for $7. Tickets are $9 at the door.

The 70-member band provides 12 concerts annually, including seven summer "Musical Mondays" in the Veterans Memorial Band Shell in Lions Park that draw a large and faithful audience, founder and conductor Ralph Wilder said.

Normally, if the weather doesn't cooperate, concerts are moved into the gym at the park.

On Monday, June 30, it was raining heavily and the concert was moved inside, but as the concert was about to begin, a power failure left in the building in the dark and the concert had to be canceled.

Wilder said the cancellation was especially disappointing because the program was to be made up of requests from the band's loyal supporters. Forms had been passed out to the audience at the first several concerts and the results were numerous, varied and surprisingly specific, according to Wilder.

"One elderly lady wrote that she remembers playing the 'King Cotton March' by John Philip Sousa with her band in Wisconsin over 65 years ago and wanted to hear it again - and, of course, we were going to play it," Wilder wrote in an email. "Others wanted more Broadway show tunes, more concert overtures, more concertos, and the famous 'Can-Can' from the 'Overture to Orpheus.' We planned to comply with all of their requests."

For Sunday, the band has expanded on what was intended last summer.

"The sophistication of some of the requested pieces, such as 'Capriccio Espagnol' by the Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky Korsakov is nothing short of amazing," Wilder said. "For years we have featured an absolutely marvelous vocalist named Amy Keipert - and our 'summertime' audience loves her as well - and requested 'more Amy' - and, of course, we will feature her performing many of those Broadway show tunes that our audience wanted to hear."