Isthmus Woodwind Quintet

I have been playing bassoon with the Isthmus Woodwind quintet since 2002. Several members of our group are teachers, although we're not all band teachers. The reason we rehearse is because we enjoy playing quintet music and strive to improve as musicians. We have performed at several weddings, and last spring we played a 45-minute concert at the First Unitarian Church of Madison during their Noon Musicale series.

We took this photo of our quintet last summer:


On Wednesday, we played seasonal music at the Madison airport for travelers who were passing by. I really enjoyed this performance, because I love to play Christmas music. Among the songs that we performed were:

Festival of Carols, arr. by Paul Nagle
Troika by Sergei Prokofiev
Shepherds' Christmas Music (which included the songs Patapan, Coventry Carol, Noel Nouvelet, Silent Night, and Il Est Ne, Le Divin Enfant) by Clark McAllister
What Child Is This? arr. by Bill Holcomb
Menuetto by Boccherini
Overture to the Nutcracker Ballet and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy by Tschaikowsky

Here are some photos from our performance:

TubaChristmas 2007

Madison TUBACHRISTMAS

I had a lot of fun playing in TUBACHRISTMAS on Saturday, December 8 in the State Capitol Rotunda.
Here are a few photos from the concert, sent to me by my friend Carol.

6th-Grade Band Concert Expedition

The 6th-Grade Band, Orchestra, and Choir performed the first concert of their middle school careers on Tuesday, December 4.

The Band performed first on the concert, and played the following songs:

The Deadly Medley
This song is a combination of many of the songs that we have been working on in band class this fall. We played the first and last song all together with the full band, and then each section got a chance to play a song by themselves.

Saint Nicholas on the Housetop
This song combines "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" and "Up On The Housetop". These songs are separated by a 4-measure percussion section soli.

The Friendly Beasts
This is the first song that we have done in 6th-grade band where there are many different parts, including melody, harmony, and bass line as well as a variety of percussion parts.

Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells was composed by James Pierpont. The song was copyrighted under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in 1857. A common story about the song's composition is that it was written by Pierpont (who was the organist at a Unitarian Church in Savannah, Georgia) for a Thanksgiving program, but it was so popular that it was repeated again at Christmas. Other versions of the story report that it was composed in Boston or Medford, Massachusetts.

Next, the Orchestra played three songs. One of the songs, Tribal Dance, needed 4 percussionists to play drum parts. Two of the percussionists were located on the stage, and another two were in the back of the auditorium.

After a short break for another stage change, the Choir sang five songs, including Dona Nobis Pacem and Ding, Dong, Merrily on High.

All three groups performed really well, and all of the students should be proud of their accomplishment!

7th- & 8th-Grade Band Concert Expedition

Thursday, November 29

The 7th- and 8th-Grade Bands performed their first concert of the year in the high school auditorium. This was the first performance of the year for the 7th-grade band, and the second for the 8th-graders. Both bands played well! (And we even managed to finish the concert in plenty of time for everyone to get home and tune in for most of the Packers/Cowboys game.)

The 7th-Grade Band played the following songs:

Nottingham Castle by Larry Daehn
Stillmeadow Overture by Dennis O. Eveland
and
Little Rock by James D. Ployhar

In a quick informal survey during class the day after the concert, the 7th-graders said the songs that they enjoyed most were Stillmeadow Overture and Little Rock.

The 8th-Grade Band played:
Gopak by Modest Mussorgsky, arranged by Andrew Balent
The Monument March by David W. Moore
and
Psalm by William Himes

The 8th-graders liked Psalm best and discussed possibly including it on the CD that they will record at the end of the school year.

TubaChristmas

What is TubaChristmas?

Each year, tuba, baritone, and euphonium players get together in many cities across the US, Canada, and Europe to pay tribute to renowned tuba performer and teacher William J. Bell (who was born on Christmas Day, 1902) by performing Christmas music arranged by American composer Alec Wilder (who ironically died on Christmas Eve, 1980.) For additional information, you can click on TubaChristmas in "Mrs. Stone's links".

The 2007 Madison-area TubaChristmas performance will be held on Saturday, December 8 at 2:30pm in the State Capitol Rotunda.


(Photo from Madison's 2002 TubaChristmas)

Any tuba or baritone players wishing to participate, please note the following information:

Registration begins at 11:00am at First United Methodist Church, 203 Wisconsin Ave., Madison, WI. There will be a master class conducted by Dr. Spies from 12:00-12:45pm.

Rehearsal will begin at 1:00pm. The masterclass is optional, but if you want to participate in the performance you must attend the rehearsal. After the rehearsal, all performers will walk with their instruments and music stands to the State Capitol Rotunda to set up and perform.

Other useful information for participants:

- The registration fee is $5 (which is tax deductible) and includes a 2007 TUBACHRISTMAS commemorative button.

- Each participant will need a copy of Carols For A Merry TUBACHRISTMAS. This music is used every year, and is available at registration for $15.00 or $20.00.

- Bring a music stand.

- Dress festively!

The photo shown below was taken after Chicago's 2005 TubaChristmas. The guest conductor I'm pictured with is Colonel John R. Bourgeois USMC (Ret.). Colonel Bourgeois was the 25th Director of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. During his career he worked with nine presidents, from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Bill Clinton. To learn more about Colonel Bourgeois, click on the following link: http://www.marineband.usmc.mil/learning_tools/our_history/directors/bourgeois.htm

8th-Grade Band performs at Homecoming - October

Winnequah's 8th-Grade Band experienced the fun of performing at the Homecoming football game with the Monona Grove High School Bands on October 5, 2007. They played "Yesterday" which was one of the songs in the Beatles-themed halftime show.

The 8th-grade students also got to play some fun tunes like "Louie, Louie" as well as playing the Monona Grove fight song each time our football team scored. Fortunately for us, we got to play the fight song several times during the first half of the game!

UW Marching Band - September

This September, the University of Wisconsin's first home football game took place before the end the UW Marching Band's tryout week. Because the freshmen had not been chosen and weren't a part of the band yet, all of them marched as a separate group during halftime, not as a part of the band. The UW Band always marches 16 tubas, but the tuba section only had 15 returning sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Because I was a tuba player in the band many years ago (and because the current tuba players are really nice and invited me) I was lucky enough to be asked (along with my husband, who also is a tuba player) to march with the band for the first game, possibly making me the oldest person ever to march in the band. I marched the pregame show and my husband marched halftime. Here's an action shot from pregame - I'm the middle tuba player. (The band wore sweaters and white shorts for the first game instead of the regular band uniforms.)

6th-Grade Summer Band - June & July

For four weeks in June and July, most 6th-grade band students began learning their instruments by taking band in summer school. Students had small-group instruction daily for 2o minutes. They began by learning to assemble, disassemble, and care for their instruments. Students also learned to play with good tone, first on their mouthpieces and then on their instruments. Throughout summer school the students learned to read music notation as well. By the end of four weeks, they were able to play short songs from their band book. Some of their favorites were Hot Cross Buns, Au Claire De La Lune, and Merrily We Roll Along.

Mr. Dorn and Mr. Terhune taught the students at Taylor Prairie School and Mrs. Stone taught at Nichols School.