 COTTONWOOD BAND PRESENTS “SPRING SHOWCASE” A showcase of the band musicians and a wide variety of music will be the focus of the Cottonwood Community Band’s spring concert. The concert will be presented in Sedona on Sunday, May 5th at 3:00 PM at the Rock of Ages Lutheran Church, 390 Dry Creek Road and in Cottonwood on Sunday, May 12th at 3:00 PM at the Cottonwood Recreation Center, 150 S. 6th St. Both concerts are free and open to the public although donations to support the band’s activities are requested. The trombone section will be featured during a performance of Henry Fillmore’s ever popular “Lassus Trombone.” Jennifer Gummo-Wagner will be featured as she plays the lyrical clarinet solo in the slow section of James Swearingen’s “Celebration and Dance.” A medley of Duke Ellington tunes arranged by Calvin Custer features solos by Ron Wight on trumpet and Anita Brandon on oboe. John Warrington’s “Original Dixieland Concerto” will have a small Dixieland combo out in front of the band consisting of Ron Wright, trumpet, Ed Varjean, clarinet, Neil Rosenow, trombone, Janet Chambers, tenor saxophone, Sy Brandon, tuba, and Dustin Alcala, drum set. The remaining music on the concert features the entire ensemble playing film music by John Williams, patriotic music and marches, and two classic works by British composers Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. The concert will close with the thrilling “Great Locomotive Chase” by Robert W. Smith. This will be the first concert conducted by Will Norris, director of the Cottonwood Community Band since January. A recent transplant to the Verde Valley from Phoenix, Norris brings a wealth of experience to the band as professional French Horn player and conductor. From 1995 until his retirement in 2012, Norris was Director of Bands at the Altadena Middle School in the Ahwatukee Foothills area of Phoenix. In 2010, Norris received the Arizona Music Educators Association O.M. Hartsell award for Excellence in Music Teaching. From 1986 to 2003, Norris served as Commander and Bandmaster of the 108th Army Band, Arizona National Guard stationed in Phoenix. As a French Horn player, Norris was an member of the orchestra for the Musical Theater of Arizona, the Arizona Ballet, and was an extra and substitute musician with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he has played with the Fiesta Brass Quintet, the Salt River Brass, the Arizona Wind Symphony, the Tempe Symphonic Winds, the Tempe Symphony Orchestra, the Chandler Symphony Orchestra, the Sun City Symphony Orchestra, the Scottsdale Symphony Orchestra the Los Angeles Brass Society. Upcoming Concerts:
Sedona Concert - Sunday, May 5 at 3 PM at the Rock of Ages Lutheran Church in Sedona Cottonwood Concert - Sunday, May12 at 3 PM at the Cottonwood Recreation Center June 15 – 10 AM? – Flag Day program in Clarkdale
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COTTONWOOD BAND COMMISSIONS NEW BAND COMPOSITION The Cottonwood Community Band has become a part of a commissioning consortium for a new band composition by American Prize Orchestral Composition winner, David Avsholomov. The band is joining with over twenty-one other community and school bands throughout the world for Avshalomov to create a composition called “Vignettes” that will contain eight to ten short movements. The composition is to be completed during the fall of 2013 and the band will perform it on its spring concert in 2014. A composer grounded in the traditions of Western classical music, David Avshalomov creates his works in an accessible modern romantic, neo-tonal style that balances a rich lyric gift with a characteristic rhythmic vitality and pungent harmonies. The forms he crafts are conservative and developmental, his compositional voice distinctive. The influences on his style include the great 20th-century European and American tonal composers, and both his father Jacob and his paternal grandfather, Aaron Avshalomoff. “Melody is the thread of my daily life. I still find new paths through traditional musical forms, and fresh expression based in folk idioms and drawing on old melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic roots.” He has composed works for solo voice, choruses, orchestra, band, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments, in forms ranging in scale from songs and incidental pieces to full-length oratorio. Both his programmatic instrumental works and his vocal works focus increasingly on issues of social justice, and our fundamental connection to nature–and wilderness. He has had commissions from such ensembles as the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Mission Chamber Orchestra, Musica Bella Orchestra of NY, Odyssea Chorus of Lisbon, Los Angeles Flute Orchestra, LA Clarinet Orchestra, Westwood United Methodist Church (LA), Anglican Chorale of Southern California, and Camerata Singers of Long Beach. He has also been Resident Composer with the Anglican Chorale, Torrance Civic Chorale, and Cantori Domino. His compositions have been performed professionally across the U.S. and in Europe and Russia, and are recorded on the Albany and Naxos labels. He has earned grants from Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, the American Composer’s Forum, and the Durfee Foundation. His works have won prizes at the Aspen Festival, the Korg Competition, the Santa Monica Debut Concert series, a Special Citation from the American Prize for Orchestral Composition, and an ACDA Silver Platter Award for Outstanding Choral Repertoire. The Cottonwood Community Band rehearses on Monday evenings from 7-9 PM at the Mingus Union High School Band Room and presents two sets of concerts each year as well as performing at community events. New members are always welcomed. Anyone interested in more information can visit the band on the web at http://cottonwoodcommunityband.org.  |
