Northshore Concert Band Announces 2022/23 Season
The Northshore Concert Band (NCB) has announced its 2022/23 concert season. Conductor and Artistic Director Dr. Mallory Thompson has programmed an exciting season including a celebration of new beginnings, a retrospective on traditional wind band repertoire, and a glimpse into the brilliant, diverse future of classical music.
The 2022/23 Season is the Band's most diverse to date, with each concert highlighting the works of underrepresented communities, cultures, and perspectives in classical music - Jennifer Higdon's Mysterium and Benjamin Horne's Deep River among them.
Ten works will receive their first NCB performance, including Carlos Simon's Sweet Chariot (2019), Ulysses Kay's Solemn Prelude (1950), Kimberly Archer's Fanfare Politeia (2021), David Maslanka's Traveler (2003), and John Philip Sousa's The Belle of Chicago (1892).
This season marks a new chapter in NCB history. A new partnership with Loyola Academy combines over a century of academic excellence with a tradition of musical excellence on Chicago's North Shore. Loyola Academy's new state-of-the-art Leemputte Family Theater is the new home of Northshore Concert Band, serving as a weekly rehearsal destination and location for multiple concerts throughout their 2022/23 Season. The first two NCB subscription concerts will be performed at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall on the Evanston, Illinois, campus of Northwestern University and the second two will be performed at the Leemputte Family Theater on Loyola Academy's campus in Wilmette, Illinois.
The first concert of the 2022-23 season - Variations on America on November 6, 2022 - will survey disparate realizations of the American dream with thought-provoking works spanning more than a century. Charles Ives' witty and irreverent title work opens the program, taking the audience through musical twists and turns on the familiar tune "(America) My Country, 'Tis of Thee." Works by African American composers take center stage, including Carlos Simon's Sweet Chariot, a sensuous melding of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" with Gregorian plainchant. Requiem for the Unarmed, Kevin Day's memorial to the countless Black lives lost due to racial injustice, illustrates the composer's response to the death of George Floyd through chilling, obfuscated harmonies and subtle nods to Dido's Lament and Mozart's Requiem. Premiered in the segregated South of 1950, Ulysses Kay's Solemn Prelude is a lamenting, contrapuntal work that uses simple musical motifs to explore rich harmonies and textures unique to wind ensembles. The music of Kay's teacher, Paul Hindemith's monumental Symphony in B-flat, closes the program with its bombastic Fugue, the chittering woodwinds abruptly silenced by the brass and percussion with a powerful final cadence.
Their acclaimed Lifetime of Music program returns on February 19, 2023. It is an adventure through lifetimes of music spanning from some of the earliest recorded music through works by emerging composers of today. Commissioned by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band for the 59th Presidential Inauguration, Illinois native Kimberly Archer's Fanfare Politeia pays homage to the origins of democracy in the writings of Aristotle and Plato. Ron Nelson's Medieval Suite takes inspiration from the organum of Léonin and Pérotin, combining quotations of their most famous works with brilliant fanfares and sparkling percussion. Viet Cuong's nebulous Sound and Smoke derives from Goethe's Faust. Feeling is everything, words are mere sound and smoke- and paints intriguing, abstract musical images through colorful orchestration and sublime harmonies, spinning out with a fast-paced toccata to bring the audience to their feet. Outstanding middle school musicians from the Chicagoland area will join NCB on stage in the second half of the program for their 19th annual Lifetime of Music performance featuring the music of Katahj Copley, James Barnes' classic Yorkshire Ballad, and the comedic A+ March.
Celebrating their new partnership with Loyola Academy, Festive Beginning marks the Band's subscription debut at the Leemputte Family Theater on April 16, 2023. Dmitri Shostakovich's rousing Festive Overture raises the curtain with a grandiose ceremonial fanfare followed by sweeping, effervescent melodic lines. In his Slavyanskaya Symphony - a work not heard in the United States until the fall of the Iron Curtain - Boris Kozhevnikov quotes folk melodies from his hometown, the ancient city of Novgorod, with pensive lyricism and radiant vitality. The second half of the program is packed with American favorites, beginning with Morton Gould's spirited American Salute, based on the Civil War-era song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." Mysterium by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon provides momentary repose, evoking the mystery of how music moves us with combinations of melody and rhythm reflecting spoken language. The jubilant and cinematic final movement of Howard Hanson's Romantic Symphony brings the program to a dazzling finish with flourishing woodwinds and valiant brass.
The season comes to a close on June 4, 2023 with American Celebration. This program combines all things American, from baseball to Broadway and everything in between. Bright, uplifting, and joyous, baseball-fanatic Carolyn Bremer's Early Light draws upon her anticipation at hearing the national anthem before ball games. The saxophone section steps into the spotlight for Benjamin Horne's sumptuous setting of "Deep River," with soulful solos scored for the entire section. From the baseball diamond straight into the theater, Warren Barker's sensational arrangement of some of George Gershwin's most famous works, including An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue, kicks off the second half of our program. 76 Trombones lead the way in selections from The Music Man, followed by highlights from Star Wars, masterfully arranged by Donald Hunsberger. Their American Celebration culminates with John Philip Sousa's salute to the lovely ladies of the Windy City, The Belle of Chicago.
For more information on Northshore Concert Band, their 2022/23 season and to purchase tickets visit northshoreband.org.