Mat-Su Concert Band Performs “Spring Fling” Concert
Contributed by Drewcilla S Holifield
From Sousa marches to a sprightly waltz and movie music, the Mat-Su Concert Band’s May concert features a range of lively tunes to celebrate this all-too-brief season in Alaska.
The “Spring Fling” concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday May 6 at the Glenn Massay Theater at Mat-Su College. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $5 for students. Children under 5 get in free. Tickets can be purchased online at www.matsuconcertband.org.
The band, more than 60 musicians under the baton of director Gleo Huyck, is composed of community members from all walks of life: teachers and business owners, accountants and librarians.
This concert features two popular marches by John Philip Sousa as well as Leroy Anderson’s “Belle of the Ball”, viewed by the composer as something of a modern-day revitalization of the classic Viennese waltz with a main theme that hints more of Tchaikovsky as “evident in its playful, fantasy-like character,” according to program notes by Robert Cummings.
Movies and musicals get billing on the program as well. A “Top Gun” medley includes various numbers from the 1986 action film centered on elite U.S. Navy aviators (the Oscar-winning sequel, “Maverick,” popped up in theaters last year). Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere” from the musical “West Side Story” has been called one of the definitive ballads of all time.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Procession of the Nobles” was written in 1889 as part of the opera-ballet Mlada. After that initial project fell through, Rimsky-Korsakov completed it nearly 20 years later, creating an orchestral suite from the opera of which the procession is the final movement. The piece begins with a crisp brass flourish, followed by the processional itself, with a return to the march turn for the energetic close.
Mat-Su Concert Band got its start in 1984 as the Mat-Su Community Band, formed by Matanuska Music owner Hank Hartman. Other directors have included Neil Long and Phil Munger.
Current director Huyck is a retired music educator and private instructor. Under his baton, the band performs a wide-ranging selection of challenging music. The band rehearses every Monday night at Teeland Middle School.
