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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.”

 

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.

June 27, 2024 Concert

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 Star-Spangled Banner

The Star-Spangled Banner

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

8-8-24 America the Beautiful

America the Beautiful

O Beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain;

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee.

And crown thy good with brotherhood

from sea to shining sea.

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