It’s officially summer – USU alumni band plays first concert
In Cache Valley one sign that summer has officially arrived is the first concert by the Utah State University Alumni Band. Comprised of graduates and friends of Utah State, the band returns under the baton of Nicholas Morrison for another of summer entertainment in the concert-in-the-park tradition.
The band also has a tradition of opening its season in conjunction with the Summer Music Clinic provided by the department of music. The band kicks things off Sunday, June 13, at 7 p.m. in the Kent Concert Hall of the Chase Fine Arts Center. The concert is free, as are all Alumni Band Sunday concerts. Families are welcome.
“We only ask that parents of small children respect the listening experience of those around them by sitting near doors and helping the children leave if they become disruptive,” Morrison said.
The opening concert features several guests, including a Utah State faculty member and a student.
Thomas P. Rohrer, director of bands in the music department, will conduct his original composition, “Synergy.” The work was commissioned for the groundbreaking of Utah State’s new recital hall and was premiered in May of this year. The title, “Synergy,” celebrates the collaborative nature of the arts and their contributions to the university, said Morrison.
Rohrer, now in his seventh year on campus, is nationally recognized as a composer and has an international reputation as a guest conductor and clinician. During Music Clinic activities, Rohrer will conduct the clinic’s Symphonic Band which will also perform “Synergy” in a student concert.
The concert’s student soloist is Roger Karren, an undergraduate trombone student and a veteran of the Marine Band during the Gulf War. Karren, who will teach low brass sections for the music clinic, performs Pryor’s “Blue Bells of Scotland” with the band.
The program includes a variety of other selections conducted by Morrison, who is associate director of bands in the department of music and is now in his 13th year in the department and his 11th with the Alumni Band. Selections include standard fare such as “Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna” and John Williams’ always popular “March” from the film “1941.”
Of special note is Ira Hearshen’s “The Thunderer” from his “Symphony on Themes of John Philip Sousa.”
“It is a totally different piece,” said Morrison. “It takes the ‘Thunderer’ theme but transforms it in a way that’s almost Wagnerian. It’s as if Mr. Hearshen used the melody of a Sousa march for the theme of a grand opera – fitting since Sousa, a violinist, also wrote several operas.”
The opening concert is also a salute to the dedication of the band members, many of whom have played with the band for many years.
“This is truly a labor of love for these fine folks – love of music, of performing for our summer audience, of the band’s founder, Dr. Max Dalby, and, of course, love of Utah State,” Morrison said.
Dates and times for all Alumni Band summer performances include: June 13, 7 p.m., Kent Concert Hall; June 27, 7 p.m., Kent Concert Hall; July 4, 7 pm., Old Main Hill (Amphitheater); July 25, 7 p.m., Kent Concert Hall; Aug. 1, 7 p.m., Kent Concert Hall.
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