The sixth concert of the 156th season of the Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will be held on Thursday, July11, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park. The band plays a variety of music to entertain audience members of all ages. All concerts are free and everyone is welcome. Jeffrey Scott Doebler is the conductor and Quincy Ford is the assistant conductor. Dr. Doebler serves as director of music education at Valparaiso University. Mr. Ford, principal saxophone in the MCMB, retired director of bands and music department chair at Michigan City High School. Quincy Ford will lead the band this week.

The July 11 concert program will include:

King Cotton by John Philip Sousa
Suite of Old American Dances by Robert Russell Bennett
I. Cake Walk II. Schottische III. Western One-Step
April by Aaron Perrine
Music for A Summer Night by Glenn Osser
Despacito arranged Paul Murtha
Ghostbusters Ray Parker Jr. arranged Doug Adams
Hands Across the Sea by John Philip Sousa arranged Keith Brion and Loras Schissel

Continuing its tradition of concluding each concert with a patriotic audience sing-along, the Michigan City Municipal Band will close with This Is My Country arranged by Hawley Ades.

The MCMB156th season consists of ten free Thursday concerts, ending August 8. The concerts begin at 7:30p and last about an hour. Parking is available in the lots closest to the amphitheater, as well as the Michigan Senior Center. Entrance to the park is free with a Michigan City Park sticker; otherwise, there is a parking fee of $4 for the band concert. (The $4 fee applies after 7:00p.)

Food trucks will be on site for the band concerts. Audience members are encouraged to patronize these local businesses.

Rick Carlson, principal trumpet for MCMB, will be the announcer.

The fourth concert of the 156th season of the Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will be held Thursday, June 27, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park.

Special guest artists will be Anne Marie Bice, soprano soloist; and Jared Coller, xylophone soloist. In honor of Independence Day the following week, the MCMB will play several selections to honor our country.

The June 27 concert repertoire will be:

Choose Joy by Randall Standridge
Yesterday by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
They Can’t Take That Away from Me by George and Ira Gershwin
High Intensity by Chandler Wilson
Star Spangled Spectacular by George M. Cohan
Xylophone Rags by George Hamilton Green
A Prayer for Peace by John Williams
A Patriotic Festival by Mark Williams
The Stars and Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa

Guest soprano soloist, Anne Marie Bice, will sing two contrasting and well-known songs: Yesterday by The Beatles, and the 1937 popular tune They Can’t Take That Away From Me. This Gershwin standard was first performed by Fred Astaire, singing to Ginger Rogers in the film Shall We Dance. Ms. Bice is a voice professor from Valparaiso University. She has extensive performance experience, sings in a wide variety of styles, and has been soloing with the Michigan City Municipal Band since 2015.

Guest xylophone soloist, Jared Coller, is a professional percussionist who serves as Education Manager for the LaPorte County Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Coller is former director of bands at Rensselaer High School and Middle School. He is a graduate of Valparaiso University, and an endorsing artist for Artifact Percussion and Soultone Cymbals. Mr. Coller will perform the Xylophone Rags of George Hamilton Green. Mr. Green was known as the “world’s greatest xylophonist.” He started recording in 1916. He was also on the sound recording crew for Walt Disney’s first three cartoons. Later in his life, Mr. Green pursued a successful career as a cartoonist himself.

Randall Standridge earned degrees from Arkansas State University, and is the founder of the extremely-popular music publishing company, Randall Standridge Music. Choose Joy is just as the title suggests: a joyful celebration of life. The composition contains snippets of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. It was commissioned to honor the life of a band student who died from cancer. The student and her family selected the motto “Choose Joy” to maintain a positive attitude during that terrible time.

Dr. Chandler Wilson is an African-American composer and a native of Miami. He serves on the music faculty at Florida State University, the institution where he earned his doctoral degree in music education. In High Intensity, Dr. Wilson uses syncopation, quick tempo, accented articulations, and driving rhythms to maintain great energy throughout the composition.

Known to some as “Mr. Broadway” or “The Man Who Owned Broadway”, George M. Cohan wrote more than 50 shows and 300 songs, many of which are standards in honoring our country. In recognition of Mr. Cohan’s contribution to national morale during World War I, President Franklin Roosevelt presented him with the Congressional Gold Medal. The medley of George M. Cohan music, entitled Star Spangled Spectacular, contains Mary’s a Grand Old Name, Give My Regards to Broadway, Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and You’re a Grand Old Flag.

John Williams composed A Prayer for Peace for Munich, the 2005 Steven Spielberg film that recounted the 1972 massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympics in Germany. John Williams’ music was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Continuing its tradition of concluding each concert with a patriotic audience sing-along, the Michigan City Municipal Band will close with Mark Williams’ inspiring medley of national songs: A Patriotic Festival.

All of the Michigan City Municipal Band concerts are free, and everyone is welcome. School band members and young children are especially encouraged to attend. Parking on Lake Shore Drive is prohibited. Parking is available in the lots closest to the amphitheater, as well as the Senior Center. Entrance to the park is free with a Michigan City Park sticker; otherwise, there is a parking fee of $4 for the band concert. (The $4 fee applies after 7:00p.)

Food trucks will be on site for the band concerts. Audience members are encouraged to patronize these local businesses.

Jeffrey Scott Doebler is the conductor for the MCMB, and Quincy Ford is the assistant conductor. Dr. Doebler serves as director of music education and bands at Valparaiso University. Mr. Ford, principal saxophone in the MCMB, is retired director of bands and music department chair from Michigan City High School.

The band’s announcer is Rick Carlson.

The third concert of the 156th season of the Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will be held Thursday, June 20, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park.

Special guest artists will be ACE Group (All Clarinet Ensemble).

The June 20 concert repertoire will be:

Manhattan Beach March by John Philip Sousa (ACE Group with MCMB)

Beatles Medley for Clarinet Choir (ACE Group alone)

Espionage by Grant Horsley (ACE Group with MCMB clarinet section)

Boomwhackers® Ballet by Michael Boo (ACE Group with MCMB)

Bravada Paso Doble by Frederic Curzon

Lift Up Your Heads by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Eire by Melanie Donahue (Sarah DeRossi, conductor)

Peace Song by Timothy Broege

Poet and Peasant Overture by Franz von Suppe’ (honoring retiring band member Merry Johnson)

A Patriotic Festival arr. Mark Williams

The Michigan City Municipal band is thrilled to welcome the ACE Group. “ACE” stands for “All Clarinet Ensemble.” ACE’s instrumentation includes clarinets from the small Eb soprano clarinet, all the way down to the lowest contrabass clarinet. ACE Group is based in the South Bend area, and is led by retired music educator Dennis Gamble.

The ACE Group will perform one selection on their own, one piece combined with the eleven-member clarinet section of the Michigan City Municipal Band, and two compositions with the full Michigan City Municipal Band.

In addition to being outstanding performers, many of the Michigan City Municipal Band members are also successful conductors. On five concerts this season, conductors from within the band are being featured, each leading one composition. On June 20, Sarah DeRossi will conduct Eire by Melanie Donahue. Ms. DeRossi serves as one of the band teachers in the Valparaiso Community Schools. A native of Tinley Park, Illinois, she is a graduate of Valparaiso University. Ms. DeRossi plays piccolo and flute in the Michigan City Municipal Band and Windiana Concert Band. When Eire was published in 2007, Melanie Donahue was acclaimed as the first female band composer in the Alfred Publishing catalog. A native of New Hampshire, Ms. Donahue graduated from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She describes Eire as a musical portrait of Ireland.

Manhattan Beach March was composed by John Philip Sousa 1893, during the summer of the Sousa Band’s first year. The Sousa Band played daily concerts at the Manhattan Beach resort in New York. Manhattan Beach March has some interesting effects, including clarinets imitating ocean waves in the third section of the piece. It is likely that Manhattan Beach March was played in Michigan City on the Sousa Band’s 1914 and 1924 tours, as the programs list Manhattan Beach March as one of the regular encores.

Boomwhackers® Ballet was composed by the late Michael Boo of Chesterton. It’s a catchy novelty number that allows the band to feature any instrument or section in the band. For June 20, we’ll have the ACE Group join the Michigan City Municipal Band for lots of fun, featuring clarinets galore!

Born in London, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was a black composer who studied at the Royal College of Music, starting at age 15. With influences by African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, as well as ensembles like the Fisk Jubilee Singers, “Coleridge” focused on his African heritage. Based on Psalm 24: 7-8, Lift Up Your Heads is a beautiful choral anthem from 1892.

We’re playing Poet and Peasant Overture to honor MCMB flutist Merry Johnson. Merry has recently retired from the MCMB after serving in the band for 42 years. Austrian composer Franz von Suppe’ completed Poet and Peasant Overture in 1846. It comes from an operetta about a young lady who inherits a fortune. Of course, there is a stipulation to receive the inheritance: she must marry a specific wealthy landowner. As you might expect, the young lady is actually in love with a poet. Much drama ensues, but by the end of the operetta, the young lady and the poet are united.

Continuing its tradition of concluding each concert with a patriotic audience sing-along, the Michigan City Municipal Band will close with Mark Williams’ inspiring medley of national songs: A Patriotic Festival.

All of the Michigan City Municipal Band concerts are free, and everyone is welcome. School band members and young children are especially encouraged to attend. Parking on Lake Shore Drive is prohibited. Parking is available in the lots closest to the amphitheater, as well as the Senior Center. Entrance to the park is free with a Michigan City Park sticker; otherwise, there is a parking fee of $4 for the band concert. (The $4 fee applies after 7:00p.)

Food trucks will be on site for the band concerts. Audience members are encouraged to patronize these local businesses.

Jeffrey Scott Doebler is the conductor for the MCMB, and Quincy Ford is the assistant conductor. Dr. Doebler serves as director of music education and bands at Valparaiso University. Mr. Ford, principal saxophone in the MCMB, is retired director of bands and music department chair from Michigan City High School.

The band’s announcer is Rick Carlson.

The ninth concert of the 151st season of the Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will take place Thursday, August 1, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park.

Guest soloist on the August 1 concert will be Anne Bice, voice professor from Valparaiso University. Ms. Bice has extensive performance experience and sings in a wide variety of styles. Prof. Bice will sing music from Les Miserables and from Led Zeppelin.

The Michigan City Municipal Band August 1 concert repertoire will be:Continue reading→