Community members will join Cameron University music students for a concert featuring the Cameron Community Brass Choir and the Cameron/Lawton Community Band, both under the direction of Dr. Lucas Kaspar. The concert is set for Sunday, April 28, in the University Theatre.
Tickets purchased at the door are $10 for adult and $8 for senior citizens, members of the military, and non-CU students. Cameron University students, faculty and staff receive one free admission with their CU I.D. Tickets can be reserved by calling the box office at 580-581-2346. Tickets can also be purchased in advance online at https://www.cameron.edu/art-music-and-theatre/events/buy-tickets. (Taxes and processing fees apply.)
“Preparing for this concert has brought me a lot of joy because both ensembles bring musicians of all types together for a common goal,” says Kaspar. “Both groups are made up of Cameron music students, advanced high school students, local band directors, hobby musicians and professional musicians. The musicians are dedicated to the success of the group and spend their very little free time rehearsing for this concert.”
The Cameron Community Brass Choir, which features trumpets, trombones, euphoniums, horns and tubas, will open the concert. Aaron Copland’s “Ceremonial Fanfare,” written in 1969 when Copland was asked to compose a fanfare to commemorate the centennial of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, will kick off the concert, followed by Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Ricercar.” Originally composed for harpsicord in 1747, the piece is one of Bach’s well-known fugues.
That will be followed by Andrew Skaggs’ “Postcards for Solo Euphonium and Low Brass Quartet,” a modern composition that will feature Sgt. Sean Jobes of the 77th Army Band. The ensemble will then present Paul Beckel’s “Tragic March,” which Kaspar refers to as “an unconventional march that is very slow and composed in a minor key. The march ends with a very surprising chord!”
The Cameron Community Brass Choir will continue with John Stamp’s “Declamation on a Hymn Tune,” in which Stamp uses the melody of William Henry Draper’s “All Creatures of Our God and King” as a motif. CU percussionists Alyssa Price and Mykayla Waller will join the ensemble for this number. Vaclav Nelhybel’s “Chorale for Brass: will follow. Kaspar refers to this composition as “an abnormal quick chorale, based on the Chorale of the Hussites.” The ensemble will conclude its portion of the program with an energetic performance of music from Pixar’s “The Incredibles.”
The Cameron/Lawton Community Band will begin its portion of the concert with a performance of Todd Stalter’s “Critical Mass.” About this composition, Stalter said, “Critical mass is a scientific term that refers to the smallest amount of fissile material needed to sustain a nuclear chain reaction. The work begins with an explosion of sound, then launches forward through small, ever-growing melodic fragments that expand outward and upward.”
Frank Ticheli’s “Cajun Folk Songs” will follow. Ticheli composed “La Belle et le Capitaine” and “Belle.” The former tells the story of a young girl who feigns death to avoid being seduced by a captain. Ticheli has said, “The Dorian melody is remarkably free, shifting back and forth between duple and triple meters. In this arrangement, the melody is stated three times. The third time, an original countermelody is added in flutes, oboe, clarinet, and trumpet.”
“Belle” is about a man from Louisiana who goes to Texas only to receive word of his sweetheart's illness, forcing him to return home. Finding her unconscious, he pawns his horse to try to save her, to no avail. “The folk melody is sometimes varied rhythmically, texturally and coloristically, and an original melody is added for variety,” notes Ticheli.
Next up is Andrew Boysen’s “Kirkpatrick Fanfare,” commissioned by Central Missouri State University for the dedication of the James C. Kirkpatrick Library in March 1999. “This work has a definite Irish flavor, including a strain of ‘Danny Boy.’ The ‘fanfare’ features driving rhythms and exciting brass figures, making this dramatic work sure to please both performers and audiences alike,” Boysen has said.
The ensemble will then perform Alfred Reed’s “Alleluia! Laudamus Te,” a hymn of praise without words in which the band serves as a single massive choir. According to Reed, the music has three main themes: a massive chorale in the brass, a long flowing line in the horns and woodwinds, and a quasi-fanfare figure first heard in the trumpets and then spreading throughout the other sections of the orchestra.
Stephen Sinclair’s arrangement for brass quintet and band of Johann Strauss’ “Radetzky March” will close the concert. This famous up-tempo march will feature Derek Griner, trumpet; Jeremiah Phillips, trumpet; Sue Ann Hannah, horn; Ian Stark, trombone; and Samps Taylor, tuba.
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