Topic > civic concert band - 709

On Sunday, May 4, 2014, I participated in the civic concert band at LCCC. They put on a show called “These Are Some of My Favorite Things, Part III.” This performance featured music by George Gershwin and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was also hosted by Mark Wainwright. The band was on stage when I arrived, everyone was playing random notes. Then, around 2:55, everyone started playing the same notes to tune their instruments. At 3:00, Mark calmly took the stage and the band began playing the song A Few of My Favorite Things from the musical The Sound of Music. I remember smiling and thinking, "Hey, I know this song, maybe it won't be as bad as I thought." After the song ended, Mark introduced himself and said the title of the next song they were going to play. It was called The Wizard of Oz, arranged by James Barnes. It was a medley of all the songs from the movie The Wizard of Oz. The band started off slow and easy, playing the tune of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Then I could tell that the song had really begun when the medley changed to Ding Dong The Witch is Dead. It was upbeat and I was singing in my head, and that's when I knew I was in good hands. From then on, the song transitioned back and forth from We're Off to See the Wizard to If I Only Had a Brain. This was definitely my favorite part of the entire concert. They finished the song and the audience applauded as the conductor gestured to the soloists during the song to stand. Then they sat down and started the next song. This was called Porgy and Bess. It was arranged by Robert Russell Bennett. I didn't recognize parts of these songs, but I thought it was a medley of songs perhaps from a play of the same title. Most of the song was upbeat, and I remember tapping… the center of the paper… I recognized him, I still liked the performance of his medley. After that song, the audience regularly applauded while the soloists were stressed, then they sat down and the audience stopped applauding. Mark went to the microphone and thanked everyone for coming to see them perform, hoping we enjoyed the performance. He then introduced the next song, Pirates of the Caribbean, arranged by John Wasson, and jokingly corrected himself with an alternate pronunciation of the word "Caribbean." I was looking forward to this performance because I loved movies and couldn't get the main song, He's a Pirate, out of my head after seeing it on the program sheet, and even now as I wrote this sheet. The medley includes songs from all the various films, although I didn't like them as much as the other songs mostly because I just wanted to hear He's a Pirate.