Schoharie Valley Concert Band Spring Concert Sunday April 28 at 3PM - 25 April 2024

SCHOHARIE - Conductor Samantha Baldwin has scheduled the Schoharie Valley Concert Band (SVCB) Spring Concert for Sunday, April 28th at 3PM in the Cobleskill-Richmondville High School Auditorium. Students will be admitted free and the performance is open to the general-public.  

Conductor Baldwin has selected concert band music from multiple genres for the Spring Concert program.  Robert Sheldon’s tranquil reflective piece “Appalachian Morning” is set at dawn in the Cumberland Gap of Kentucky whose musical heritage was influenced by its Scottish and Irish settlers. 

The well-known English folk song “Country Garden” was written by Australian composer Percy Grainger in 1918 as a present for his mother’s birthday. Grainger’s crisp, dance-like piece was edited for concert band by Brant Karrick. 

Tim Shackelton was a Cobleskill-Richmondville Middle and High School orchestra director for 33 years who was a life-long fan of westerns.  He loved their musical scores and the way they evoked images of the splendor of the American west which led him to pursue his second career as a composer of western music scores. In his memory, the SVCB will perform “American West” by Tim Shackelton.  

“The Circus Band” is the last of a set of “Five Street Songs” written by Charles Ives while he was a student at Yale University.  The stirring march in “quickstep time” has moments of unexpected rhythmic twists and syncopations with a sprinkling of “wrong notes” in homage to the nature of amateur town marching bands.

“Albanian Dance” by Shelley Hanson is a well-known Albanian tune Shota.   This high-energy raucous folk tune captures the festive mood of a village dance in Albania.  

“In the Stone” is a song by rhythm and blues / funk band Earth, Wind, and Fire.  It was recorded and released as a single in 1979 on Columbia records and rose to Number 23 on the Billboard Hot Soul Chart and remains one of Earth, Wind, and Fire’s favorite tunes. 

“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is a song from Disney’s 2021 animated musical film “Encanto”, with music and lyrics written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.  It has been described as one of the best Disney songs, because of its smooth, syncopated South American musical style which has broad based appeal.

The Spring Concert will conclude on a high note with “The Symphonic Gershwin” which is a Warren Barker arrangement of George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris”, “Cuban Overture”, and “Rhapsody in Blue”.  

The Schoharie Valley Concert Band is open to all area residents including high school and college students.  Rehearsals are held on Thursday evenings from 7-9:15 PM. in the Cobleskill-Richmondville HS band room.  Rehearsals for the Fall Concert will resume in September.  For information on how to join the band, please contact Conductor Samantha Baldwin at svcbconductor@gmail.com.