Mt. Prospect Community Band shines in 2016 debut

Beneath a leaden sky and persistent rain, it seemed the Mt. Prospect Community Band invoked the Four Horsemen for its spring concert held on March 13 at Trinity United Methodist Church in Mount Prospect. But it was not Pestilence, War, Famine and Death that made an appearance (with due credit to Grantland Rice). Rather, the cornerstones of the concert were Puccini, Wagner, Nicolai and Sibelius. The reinvented Band under the baton of new music director, Monty Adams, provided a concert titled, Spring Into Song, featuring special guest vocal soloist, Amy Keipert.

Master of Ceremonies, Jonathan Lehrer, provided light and witty introductions for each piece beginning with Harold Bennett's Military Escort Regimental March, followed by The Merry Wives of Windsor Overture by Otto Nicolai. Lehrer revealed that Harold Bennett was only one of the many names used by the famous march king, Henry Fillmore. The Merry Wives piece has a slow, soft beginning but finishes with great energy, invoking a scoundrel fleeing the scene of his misadventures.

Amy Keipert was next for the first of her three appearances, beautifully singing Giacomo Puccini's Musetta's Waltz from La Boheme. Her vocal range was prominently displayed at the start of the second half of the program when she performed the Laughing Song from Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss.

The first half of the concert ended with a tango by John Philip Sousa, The Gliding Girl, followed by a gorgeous rendition of Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral by Richard Wagner.

After Ms. Keipert opened the second half of the concert, the Band performed the touching music of Madam Butterfly by Puccini in a concert suite for band arranged by Alfredo Antonini. No concert this close to St. Patrick's day would have been complete without music from The Irish Suite by Leroy Anderson (The Minstrel Boy and The Rakes of Mallow). Percy Grainger's Irish Tune from County Derry had the audience recalling the words of Danny Boy.

The concert ended with the stirring tone poem, Finlandia, by Jean Sibelius during which Ms. Keipert sang the embedded hymn, prompting an immediate standing ovation from the concert goers. With that, the encore, The Irish Washerwoman by Leroy Anderson, left everyone standing once again. The spring shower outside certainly should enable the Band to grow into its summer concert series beginning June 13 at the Veterans Memorial Band Shell at Lions Park in Mt. Prospect.