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Western Illinois Wind Band Concert
Tuesday, March 13, 2018 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
The Western Illinois Wind Band will present their Winter Concert on March 13, 2018 at 7 p.m. at Avon Grade School Multi Purpose Room. The Wind Band is directed by Bernie Potter and has been providing concerts since 2011 drawing players from across West Central Illinois who enjoy performing band music. There are 45 members in the ensemble ranging in age from 16 to 87. New members are always welcome.
The program will be band music from the early 1900’s at a time when there were 40-50,000 community bands in the USA and Band Concerts were a major portion of public audience entertainment. In the era before TV and Movies with sound, the great traveling bands of Gilmore, Sousa, and Fillmore were the Rock Stars of the time. Marches and transcriptions of orchestral classics of Mozart and Haydn as well as the British Band music of Holst and Vaughn Williams were standard fare. Folk Songs collected by Percy Grainger and transcribed for band and features for vocalists and instrumentalists were a part of the Wind Band repertoire.
Soloist for the program is Pete Gebauer on tuba playing Solo Pomposo written by Al Hayes, which was one of the names used by Fillmore on his compositions. And the Horn Section will be featured by themselves on a musical medley depicting pirates in the Caribbean. G. F Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from “The Messiah” will feature Brett Fisher on trumpet, David Christensen on trumpet, Steve Overcash on trombone, and Bill Roos on Euphonium. And The Battle Cry of Freedom and Kingdom Coming have been put together in a recreation of the music Civil War Bands.
Please join us on March 13 at 7 p.m. at Avon Grade School. There is no admission charge. A free will offering will be taken.
