Wheaton Municipal Band steps indoors July 9
The Wheaton Municipal Band moves indoors for one concert a year. This year, the concert will be at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 9, in Edman Chapel at Wheaton College in Wheaton.
The concert offers an opportunity to hear the Wheaton Municipal Band in the stunning acoustics of Edman Chapel and in air-conditioned comfort. (This is not a function of Wheaton College.)
The band looks forward to this performance every year. Typically programed at the end of the summer season, the July 9 concert is a change in the procedure and a program not to be missed.
Featured in the concert are Staff Sgt. Kristin Bowers and Wheaton College professor Dr. Tony Payne.
The Wheaton Municipal Band welcomes back Bowers, where she served as principal clarinetist with the band for several years. She graduated from Downers Grove North High School in 2002 and studied at Indiana University and Northwestern University. She currently is a member of "The President's Own" Marine Band in Washington, D.C. The "President's Own" Band features the very best musicians and performs all over the country. At the July 9 concert, Bowers performs "Concert Fantasy on Motifs of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto" by Luigi Bassi.
A brilliant clarinetist and soloist, the Wheaton Municipal Band is thrilled to have Bower back home with the Wheaton Municipal Band. Bowers selected an encore of a very technically difficult LeRoy Anderson work: "Clarinet Candy."
The indoor concert offers the opportunity for the WMB to program music that fits the intimacy of an indoor setting. On the program are: "Celebrations" by John Zdechlick, "Prayer and Dream Pantomime" by Englebert Humperdinck, and "March from Symphonic Metamorphosis" by Paul Hindemith.
The final work on the program allows a rare opportunity for the audience to hear the incredible organ in Edman Chapel. Dr. Tony Payne plays the organ for the "Finale, Symphony No. 3 'Organ Symphony" by Camille Saint-Saëns. The organ at Edman Chapel is the Edman Schantz Organ. Comprised of 50 stops and 70 ranks, four manuals and pedal, mechanical key action and electric stop action. It is the largest in this type of instrument in the metropolitan area, and reverberates with glory in the wonderful acoustics at Edman Chapel. Saint-Saëns knew this work marked a pinnacle in his compositions. He said, "I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again." (David Dubal, The Essential Canon of Classical Music, New York, 2003, p. 337.)
Playing the magnificent organ and this historic work is Dr. Tony Payne associate professor of music at Wheaton College. Payne marks over 40 years at the college and is also manager of the Wheaton College Artist Series, which brings in world class artists and the Chicago Symphony. Payne considers it an honor to play alongside the Wheaton Municipal Ban with the "renowned conductor, Dr. Bruce Moss."
For information, go to wheatonmunicipalband.org.