The tenth and final concert of the 156th season of the Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will be held Thursday, August 8, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park. The concert will feature a great variety of music, including compositions by Guy Foreman and John Philip Sousa. Guest artists will be soprano Anne Marie Bice, and conductor Richard Liwosz.

The August 8 concert repertoire will be:

Canto by W. Francis McBeth

Peace Like a River Spiritual arr. Robert W. Smith

Selections from Mary Poppins by R. & R. Sherman

Anne Marie Bice, soprano

The Sound of Music by R. Rodgers, O Hammerstein

Anne Marie Bice, soprano

Hoosier Holiday Overture by Guy Foreman

Energy by Adrian Sims Richard Liwosz, conductor

The Northern Pines March by John Philip Sousa

Fantasy for Band by Frank Erickson

America, the Beautiful arr. Carmen Dragon

The Stars and Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa

Guest soprano soloist Anne Marie Bice will sing music from two of the most beloved musicals: Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. 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.

In addition to being outstanding performers, many of the Michigan City Municipal Band members are successful conductors. On five concerts this season, conductors from within the band are being featured, each leading one composition.

On August 8, Richard Liwosz will conduct Energy by Adrian Sims. Mr. Liwosz is a retired music educator from the Michigan City Area Schools. He plays plays clarinet in the Michigan City Municipal Band, Windiana Concert Band, and the all-clarinet ensemble “ACE”. Mr. Liwosz holds degrees from Butler University, Purdue University, and Indiana Wesleyan University.

A native of Seattle, Adrian Sims is an African-American composer and trombonist. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, and is pursuing a graduate degree in composition at the University of Texas at Austin. He has received awards from several young composer festivals, and has had his music performed around the world. Mr. Sims describes Energy as “an electrifying burst from beginning to end.”

The Michigan City Municipal Band will be dedicating its performance of Energy to the memory of Dolores Liwosz. The mother of Richard Liwosz, Mrs. Liwosz passed away on June 30, at the age of 93. A mother, grandmother, wife, nurse, office worker, and volunteer, Mrs. Liwosz was a regular audience member for the Michigan City Municipal Band.

Guy Forrest Foreman was the most important part of the legacy of the Michigan City Municipal Band. He conducted the band for 60 of its first 133 years. Dr. Foreman had seven compositions published by Belwin. His Hoosier Holiday Overture was composed in 1959. Dr. Foreman wrote that “Hoosier Holiday portrays a vacation in the resort area of northern Indiana, along the southern shores of Lake Michigan. The music might suggest the majestic and mysterious dunes country, the romantic moonlight summer evenings, and the march-like rhythms of the band concert in the park.”

John Philip Sousa led the US Marine Band for 12 years, then went on to form his own band that toured the world for another 39 years. Mr. Sousa composed The Northern Pines March in 1931, after a wonderful experience serving as a guest conductor for the National Music Camp at Interlochen in Michigan.

Continuing its tradition of concluding each concert with a patriotic audience sing-along, the Michigan City Municipal Band will close with Carmen Dragon’s famous setting of America, the Beautiful.

The Michigan City Municipal Band sincerely appreciates the citizens, city government, and parks department of Michigan City for supporting the band!

Thanks to our videographer, Ruben Alexander, the Michigan City Municipal Band can be seen on television all year long. For Michigan City area residents, the concerts are broadcast every Wednesday, at 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM, on cable channel 99. The band concerts also air in Fort Wayne.

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.

Due to forecasted inclement weather, the August 1 concert by the Michigan City Municipal Band will take place in the Michigan City High School Auditorium, 8466 W. Pahs Road. The concert will start at 7:30p CDT.

AUDIENCE MEMBERS

· Enter via Door “O”.

· Auditorium doors will open at approximately 6:30p.

· There is no admission charge for the concert.

BAND MEMBERS

· I will bring the music folders.

· I will bring the music notebooks.

· Enter via Door “O”.

· The band room in the amphitheater will not be open.

· Tune and Talk Through still happens at 7:20p.

· I will bring my portable sound system with extension cords for Allen Smith to use.

· I will do my best to have the stage set up for you when you arrive, including percussion.

· The following percussion will be provided by MCHS:

• 4 timpani
• bass drum
• xylophone
• marimba
• vibraphone
• chimes
• Orchestra bells
• suspended cymbal
• crash cymbals
• hi hat
• gong

· If there is other equipment you would like me to bring from the amphitheater, please let me know.

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 Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will begin its 156th season on Thursday, June 6, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park.

The MCMB’s 156th season will consist of ten free concerts, beginning June 6, and ending August 8. The band plays a wide variety of music, with concerts designed to entertain audience members of all ages. The MCMB also plays for the annual Memorial Day ceremony at Greenwood Cemetery, and in the Michigan City Patriotic Parade. With one exception, all of the concerts will be performed at 7:30p Thursdays, and will last about an hour. During the week of Independence Day, the concert will take place on Saturday, July 6, at the recently-renovated gazebo near the entrance to Washington Park. The rededication ceremony will take place at 6:00p, followed by the band concert at 7:00.

Highlights of the summer concert series include special guest soloists and three commissions by award-winning composers. Guest artists will be GySgt. Hiram Diaz, euphonium, from the US Marine Band (August 1); Carnessa Carnes, narrator (August 1); Anne Marie Bice, soprano (June 13 and 27, and August 8), Dr. Lauren Hartman, soprano (July 18); Jared Coller, xylophone (June 27); and the ACE Group Clarinet Choir (June 20). Other soloists and special events will be announced during the season.

In addition to being outstanding performers, many of the MCMB members are successful conductors. Some of those conductors will be featured on individual compositions throughout the summer. We’ll also recognize four of our long-time band members—Mary Lee Riley, Roger Smith, Susan Smith, Steve Watson—and our recently-retired band member, Merry Johnson, by playing one selection each in their honor.

The world premiere of Reservation Band by Brent Michael Davids will take place on June 6. August 1 will be especially exciting, with two premieres! Michigan City composer Dan Schaaf has written Remembering Naomi to honor Naomi Anderson, African-American suffragette and Michigan City Native. Naomi’s words will be narrated by Michigan City’s Carnessa Carnes. And a new concerto by Dr. Kimberly Archer will showcase the band with world-class euphonium soloist GySgt. Hiram Diaz from the US Marine Band, “The President’s Own.”

Composer Brent Michael Davids is the famous Native American composer who has written for ensembles and films, and has been commissioned by the Joffrey Ballet and the National Symphony Orchestra. Having performed other compositions by Brent Michael Davids, the Michigan City Municipal Band is honored that Mr. Davids accepted our offer to write Reservation Band. In his program notes for the composition, Mr. Davids said “I wrote Reservation Band as a tribute to Indigenous people living within tribal bands, and—equally—to salute musicians who perform in bands, on or off the reservation.”

The June 6 concert repertoire will be:

The Belle of Chicago March by John Philip Sousa
Song for Terra by Yukiko Nishimura
Reservation Band (premiere) by Brent Michael Davids
The Hoosier Slide by Hale VanderCook
YMCA by The Village People
Vuelo by Salvador Alan Jacobo
American Riversongs by Pierre LaPlante, with Andria Kessler, conductor
Railroad Suite by Lyndol Mitchell
My America arr. Joyce Eilers

Yukiko Nishimura is a Japanese-American composer from California. She studied at Tokyo University, the University of Miami, and the Manhattan School of Music. Song for Terra is a gentle and lyrical composition that demonstrates the beautiful blended sound of the concert band. About the work, Ms. Nishimura wrote: “This composition is a peace song…I wanted to create something for this planet where we could live in a peaceful mind.”

After Guy Foreman—who led the Michigan City Municipal Band for an astonishing 60 years!—perhaps the most famous conductor in the band’s history was Hale VanderCook (1864-1949), who was conductor of the Michigan City Municipal Band for several years in the early part of the 20th century. Mr. VanderCook went on to found the VanderCook College of Music in Chicago. The Hoosier Slide (1906) features the trombone section in the style of a Ragtime “trombone smear.” The Hoosier Slide was a giant sand dune in Michigan City—200 feet high—on the site that is currently the location of the Michigan City Generating Station of the Northern Indiana Public Service Corporation. The dune was a popular tourist destination, both for its views and for sliding down its face. Unfortunately, The Hoosier Slide was mined for sand to make glass, and the dune was completely gone by 1920.

Disco fans will enjoy singing and dancing along to The Village People’s 1978 hit, Y.M.C.A. A chart-topping song around the world, Y.M.C.A. was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2020.

For Vuelo, composer Salvador Jacobo was inspired by “…seeing birds and planes flying through the sky, zooming past and through towering clouds.”

Conducting American Riversongs by Pierre LaPlante will be Andria Kessler. Ms. Kessler plays oboe and English horn in the Michigan City Municipal Band and Windiana Concert Band. She is one of the band conductors in the Valparaiso Community Schools. A native of Valparaiso, Ms. Kessler earned her bachelor’s degree in music education from Butler University. She is pursuing a master’s degree in conducting at Colorado State University.

Lyndol Mitchell’s Railroad Suite contains five famous folksongs associated with the railroad. We’re playing Railroad Suite to honor active Michigan City Municipal Band clarinetist Mary Lee Riley, for her many decades of service to the band.

Finally, the MCMB will continue its tradition of closing each concert with a patriotic audience sing-along. Joyce Eiler’s arrangement of America (My Country ‘tis of Thee) allows us to enthusiastically honor our great nation.

All of the 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.

Jeffrey Scott Doebler is the conductor for the MCMB, and Quincy Ford is the assistant conductor. In 2018, Dr. Doebler was named a Distinguished Hoosier by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb. Dr. Doebler serves as director of music education and bands at Valparaiso University. He is a past president of the Indiana Bandmasters Association and the Indiana Music Education Association. 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→