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!