“Glad Tidings to All” is the title of the Eastern Shore Wind Ensemble’s 2016 December concert. Music Director Dr. Keith A. Wharton will conduct a selection of holiday music as well as a new work by Kent County High School senior Glaeden Boyd. The free concert will begin at 4 p.m. Sunday, December 4, at Emmanuel Episcopal Church at the corner of Cross and High streets in Chestertown. The church is handicapped-accessible, via the ramp and automatic doors on the courthouse-green side of the building.
The audience is invited to have refreshments with the band in the parish hall following the concert.
The concert will begin with “Herald the Holidays,” a fanfare and flourish for concert band using familiar carols and holiday melodies. It will be followed by “A Cambridge Carol,” a work based on the joyful, rhythmic Christmas carol that evolved from a 16th-century secular French dance tune.
Next will be the instantly recognizable “The Skaters’ Waltz” that captures the graceful movements of Belle Epoque skaters on an outdoor ice rink in Paris. The more serious work that follows, “Symphonic Prelude on Adeste Fidelis,” begins with an unaccompanied trumpet solo, progresses to a trumpet duet, then full brass choir, woodwind choir and finally the complete band.
Next will be “Joyeux Noel!,” an arrangement of holiday music from France, followed by a recent adaptation of the English carol “Greensleeves” as arranged for the contemporary group Mannheim Steamroller.
The band will then play “Hark to the Fanfare Sounding,” an original work for brass composed by band member Glaeden Boyd.
The next work in the concert will be “A Mad Russian’s Christmas,” an arrangement of a piece composed for the American progressive rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra that uses Ukrainian folk melodies made famous by Tchaikovsky in “The Nutcracker” ballet.
After “Good Tidings to All,” another medley of familiar carols, the concert will conclude with “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” an arrangement of the 1963 Christmas song made famous by Andy Williams.
The Eastern Shore Wind Ensemble is an all-ages community concert band. It was formed in 2001 to offer area wind and percussion musicians the opportunity to continue or return to the pleasures of playing quality music in a large ensemble. New members are always welcome, without audition or fee.
Rehearsals for the next concert, on March 19, will begin on January 9. They start promptly at 7:00 p.m. and run until 8:30 p.m. in the Washington College band room in Gibson Center for the Arts. For further information, call 410-810-1834 or 410-778-2829. The ensemble is partially supported by a grant from the Kent County Arts Council.
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