As the start of its 2016-2017 season nears, the Eastern Shore Wind Ensemble (the all-ages community concert band based in Chestertown) invites new members to join the group for its 16th season. The first rehearsal will be on Monday, Sept. 12, starting promptly at 7:00 p.m. and ending by 8:30, in Washington College’s band room (No. 116 in the classroom wing of the Gibson Center for the Arts). Prospective members who can’t attend the first rehearsal should come to a subsequent Monday-evening rehearsal.
Wind and percussion instrumentalists with experience on their instruments, whether resuming playing after even a long period away from them or having played continually, are eligible for membership, without fee or audition. There are no limits on section sizes so that all who wish to play may do so. At present the band especially seeks players of these instruments: oboe, bassoon, clarinet (including bass), saxophone (especially tenor), horn, and baritone/euphonium.
Students from advanced middle-schoolers on up, are especially encouraged to join. They generally will find that their skills and musicianship improve faster and farther with the additional playing time and different repertoire from that of their school bands.The band also welcomes students who are experienced on their instruments but do not participate in a school band, either because their class schedules won’t allow it or because their schools have no band or other suitable ensemble.
Community-band membership offers students other benefits also. By the time they graduate from high school, student members seem to value the intergenerational interactions they have had through membership; in some seasons members have ranged from young middle-schoolers to retirees in their 80s even older.Students also realize that participating in ensembles can be a lifetime pursuit, not one that ends after graduation from high school or college. And a significant number of students who participated in the band have gone on to major in music in college and pursue music-related careers.
Dr. Keith A. Wharton, a veteran of more than 30 years as a music teacher in the Kent County Public Schools and also on the music staffs of Washington College and the Upper Chesapeake Summer Center for the Arts, has been the band’s music director from the band’s founding. He has programmed more than 65 concerts for the wind ensemble. Dr. Wharton and the ensemble still maintain their original philosophy of “providing a music group in which the members can expand their skills, play quality music, and enjoy themselves in a supportive, collegial atmosphere as well as entertain audiences.”
The season’s first free concert, one of the musical events of Sultana’s Downrigging Weekend, will be at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30, at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in downtown Chestertown. The program will consist at least partially of pieces appropriate for the Halloween season (such as “Creepy Classics for Band” and highlights from the Broadway musical “Wicked”).
The next concert will be a Christmas/winter-holiday concert on December 4. After a break, rehearsals will resume in January, with concerts scheduled for March 19 and May 21. All will be at Emmanuel Church, with free admission.
For more information, prospective members may call 410-778-2829 or 410-810-1834. The ensemble is supported by the Kent County Arts Council and community donations.
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