Buffalo Grove Symphonic Band presents: 'Looking Forward, Looking Back'
Buffalo Grove Symphonic Band 15th anniversary concert
Submitted by Alan Nudelman
Mark April 24 on your calendars! It has been 15 years for the Symphonic Band as they present their 29th Formal Concert.
To commemorate this very special occasion the Buffalo Grove Symphonic Band will look back to music from their very first performance, as well as looking forward with new music that has never before been performed by the band. The concert will feature a new work commissioned and dedicated to the band by talented young local composer Casey Dahl entitled "Outset."
The Jazz Band will be looking back with the music of Mercer and Ellington, and covering today with a rockin' version of Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk". The band will open the concert by looking in BOTH directions (to a time long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away) with the classic and ever current theme from Star Wars.
The Buffalo Grove Symphonic Band was started in October, 2001, by the Village of Buffalo Grove Arts Commission. In April, 2001, Linda Rosen, the chairwoman of the Arts Commission, was interested in starting an instrumental music group that would complement the Buffalo Grove Park District's popular Buffalo Grove Singers. (Rosen was then and still is the director of the Singers.) She sent out an mass email soliciting residents interested in joining a community orchestra, jazz band or symphonic band.
Howard Green, a long-time resident of Buffalo Grove, says he was returning from a rehearsal late one Friday night in April, 2001, and read Rosen's email. He replied to the email with his interest and Rosen, also awake and checking email, replied almost immediately. They talked late into the night, and Green ended the evening agreeing to be the Buffalo Grove Symphonic Band's founding musical director and conductor.
Green and Rosen found 40 adult musicians interested in joining the band. They included Green's wife, Shari, playing tympani and Jim Osters, also on percussion, who would become the band's president. Art Commissioner and principal of Meridian Middle School Susan Mann volunteered her school's band room for rehearsals. Also contributing was Meridian Middle School's band director and percussionist Allison (Wallis) Rakickas, who said she joined the band just to make sure no one destroyed her band room. (Rakickas met her husband through the band. They married and now have two children.)
Rehearsals began in October, 2001. In April, 2002, they presented their first concert, performed in the small theater of Stevenson High School. Since then, the Buffalo Grove Symphonic Band has grown to 70 members. They perform two major concerts each year, usually alternating between the Stevenson Performing Arts Center and the Buffalo Grove High School's Theater.
The band is the first and, along with their Jazz Band, remains the only adult community instrumental groups in the village. It is an integral part of Buffalo Grove's extensive promotion of the arts, along with other non-instrumental music groups, drama productions, and arts events that occur regularly throughout the year. In its15-year history, it has grown into one of the premiere community bands in Northern Illinois.
In those years, the band has performed over a hundred concerts to capacity audiences. In addition to the formal concerts each year at Stevenson and Buffalo Grove High Schools, the Symphonic and Jazz Bands present holiday concerts at local churches over the Christmas holidays and summer concerts, including Buffalo Grove Days, Willow Stream Park and Wheeling's summer concert series in Heritage Park. Their annual Independence Day Concert at the Buffalo Grove Rotary Green has become a yearly tradition that brings over 3,000 people to hear the performance two hours before the start of the village's fireworks display.
New this year will be the first of hopefully many seasons of a summer concert series at Willow Stream Park. In cooperation with the Buffalo Grove Park District, the Buffalo Grove Symphonic Band will be playing a concert of popular and contemporary music on Wednesday, June 15, at 7 p.m. That will be followed by the Jazz Band presenting their summer concert on Wednesday, July 13. Both concerts will be played at the new band shell in Willow Stream Park. The Arts Commission hopes to make an "evening of the arts" of both nights by including some special events for the evening still in the planning stages.
"We're looking forward to showcasing the arts of Buffalo Grove at these concerts," says Arts Commissioner Alan Nudelman. "We hope to make these concerts even more family friendly, with activities before the concert for children and adults."
"I am so very proud of all the current and former members of this ensemble and what we have accomplished in the last 15 years," stated Conductor Howard Green. "As always, this concert has something for everyone," Green said. "Classical to modern to jazz. We're keeping our old traditions and looking ahead to new types of music."
As a special treat, in recognition of the concert being on the third night of the Jewish holiday Passover, the "bake sale" during intermission will include a table with Passover treats. (Be sure to check out the "Matzo Toffee Crunch," made by Arts Commission Alan Nudelman.)
The Buffalo Grove Symphonic Band's 15th annual Spring Concert - "Looking Back, Looking Forward" - will be presented at 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 24, at the Stevenson Performing Arts Center in Lincolnshire. Adult tickets are are $10 in advance, $12 at the door, and $8 for seniors and students, and are available from band members, at Village Hall, or online at http://tickets.BGSG.org (service charge applies).