Student musicians join pros in concert
The Fox Valley Concert Band is using its most recent show to pay special tribute to today's youth.
The band's, “Salute to Youth,” will feature music either written by young composers or written about youths themselves.
The honors band members from Wredling Middle School will be adding some junior star power to the stage when they join the Concert Band to play a few pieces together during the course of the show.
The performance begins at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 6, at the Norris Cultural Arts Center, 1040 Dunham Road, St. Charles. Admission is free.
When he was looking to build the program for the “Salute to Youth” show, Fox Valley Concert Band Director Colin Holman also polled ensemble members to see what pieces they remembered playing when they were younger.
“We have a couple other pieces written for younger players and another piece for young musicians called ‘The Great Locomotive Chase' and then two pieces that are by composers who were at least young in their careers,” Holman said.
Holman believes that mixing the younger players in the Wredling band with the more experienced musicians in the Fox Valley Concert Band is beneficial to everyone.
“It's good for the young musicians to sit next to more experienced adult musicians and I think, to be honest, it's good for the adult musicians, too,” Holman said.
“(The adults are) sitting up a little straighter. They become really good role models for the young musicians. All the adult musicians were young musicians at one point.”
A love of performing is also a very definite plus.
“We are very fortunate that we have a large and very skilled ensemble that have a high artistic level of achievement and they enjoy playing together and enjoying sharing their music with an audience,” Holman said.
Members of the band, for their part, feel confident about the upcoming show.
“We're very excited about (“Salute to Youth”). Working and playing under Dr. Holman, his goal is to get us to rehearse to get to the point where we're playing the music absolutely as well as it can be played. We're feeling at this point that we've got this music well at hand,” Fox Valley Concert Band trumpet player Jim Hatfield of Glen Ellyn said.
Hatfield believes the wide variety of music a concert band can play is what makes shows like “Salute to Youth” popular and enjoyable for all listeners.
“Concert band music is really exciting music. It covers a wide range. Concert bands can play and sound like a symphony orchestra. The only thing that makes us different from a symphony is we don't have strings,” Hatfield said.
“Show tunes, jazz tunes, marches — an awful lot of really good music was written for concert bands.”
If you go
What: The Fox Valley Concert Band's “Salute to Youth,” a youth-centric musical concert featuring special performances with the Wredling Middle School honors band
When: 3 p.m. Sunday, March 6
Where: Norris Cultural Arts Center, 1040 Dunham Road, St. Charles
Cost: Free
Details: fvcb.org