ALUMNI BAND CLOSES SUMMER SEASON AT UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY

The Utah State University Alumni Band is preparing for its last concert of the 2004 summer season, and music department faculty, past and present, are in the spotlight. The band’s season-closer is Sunday, Aug. 1, at 7 p.m. in the Kent Concert Hall of the Chase Fine Arts Center. The concert is free and open to all.

The concert includes three guest conductors, a guest vocalist and multiple instrumental soloists. The concert is under the direction of Nicholas Morrison, associate director of bands in Utah State’s department of music.

Leading a trio of guest conductors is Thomas P. Rohrer, director of bands at Utah State, who will conduct a new piece, “Bayou Breakdown,” by Brant Karrick. Rohrer, now in his seventh year at Utah State, has also taught at Northern Arizona University and Bowling Green State University. He guest conducts on a regular basis throughout the United States and in Australia.

Max Dalby, the founder of the Alumni Band, will conduct the popular “March Grandioso” by Seitz for the concert. Dalby, director of bands emeritus at Utah State, served as director of bands, professor of music education, department head and orchestra conductor from 1957-1983. In addition to founding the Alumni Band, he conducted and directed the ensemble until 1993.

The final guest conductor is professor emeritus Larry Smith, who will conduct several jazz vocal selections, including “I Wish You Love,” with his daughter, Monica Fronk, as vocal soloist. Smith, who has arranged dozens of tunes for the band, retired as director of jazz studies in 2003. He founded the jazz program at Utah State.

Fronk, in addition to being Smith’s daughter, is one of only a handful of vocalists to ever sing with the Utah State Jazz Orchestra. She lives is Providence and is the mother of 13.

Among the highlights on the program is “JOBIM!,” a work based on songs composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim, a Brazilian composer most famous for his song “The Girl from Ipanema,” which opens the arrangement.

“The composer is credited with bringing the bossa nova style from the dance hall to the concert hall – a bit of a Brazilian George Gershwin, if you like,” Morrison said.

Morrison conducts the work that features a large cast of faculty soloists, including Smith, who arranged the tune and solos on flute and saxophone. Jon Gudmundson, Utah State’s director of jazz studies and saxophone professor, solos on saxophones, and Dennis Griffin, Utah State’s percussion professor, performs on drum set. Todd Fallis, professor of bass trombone, solos on bass trombone in the piece, and Mike Christiansen, professor of guitar studies, is guitar soloist.

The remainder of the program, conducted by Morrison, includes works by Alfred Reed, George Gates, Fred Allen and John Philip Sousa.