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This week the Marine Band will perform a concert titled “Tributes,” celebrating works inspired by a composer’s native homeland of Prague, the 1920s entertainer Fanny Brice, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and a Presidential Inauguration. Conducted by Marine Band Director Colonel Jason K. Fettig, the free, non-ticketed event will take place at 2 p.m., Sunday, April 10 at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center in Alexandria, Va.

Photo by Gunnery Sgt. Brian Rust

CANCELED -- Marine Band Concert: “Tributes”

8 Apr 2022 | Gunnery Sgt. Rachel Ghadiali United States Marine Band

This week the Marine Band will perform a concert titled “Tributes,” celebrating works inspired by a composer’s native homeland of Prague, the 1920s entertainer Fanny Brice, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and a Presidential Inauguration. Conducted by Marine Band Director Colonel Jason K. Fettig, the free, non-ticketed event will take place at 2 p.m., Sunday, April 10 at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center in Alexandria, Va.

PROGRAM AND NOTES

The performance begins with Kim Archer’s Fanfare Politeia, a 3-minute fanfare which the Marine Band commissioned for the 59th Presidential Inauguration. Master Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Rose kicks off the piece on tenor drum with a combination of triplets and sixteenth notes to propel the band forward. Archer included snare rudiments with ruffs, rolls, and flams throughout the exciting fanfare and peppered in accents to emphasize crescendos for the band. The piece also features energetic flourishes, heavy brass, and super-fast trills in the woodwinds.

According to the composer, “Fanfare Politeia is an homage to the origins of our democracy, and to the ancient sources that Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Adams drew from in their conceiving and writing our Constitution. … Fanfare Politeia celebrates our traditions of a free and fair election, and of a peaceful transfer of power.”

Following the fanfare, clarinetist soloists Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Leblanc and Staff Sgt. Parker Gaims will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Konzertstück No. 1 in F minor, Opus 113. This light and highly melodic duet will feature Leblanc on B-flat clarinet and Gaims on basset horn.

“The basset horn is a unique type of clarinet that has a very large range, and it’s tone color and the range provide a unique and beautiful sound that is not really matched by the other instruments in the clarinet family,” Gaims said. “The Konzertstück No. 1 in F minor is a wonderful showpiece—it goes all over the basset horn and features both instruments in a flashy way. I’m looking forward to performing this piece with Joe not only because he’s a wonderful clarinet player but also because he’s been a good friend of mine for eight years. The audience will love the interaction between the two solo instruments, and those who don’t know about the basset horn will get to see it and learn about it.”

The concert continues with Karel Husa’s moving tribute to his native city: Music for Prague. A staple in the standard repertoire of the wind ensemble, the composition features a war song to symbolize resistance and hope; bells used to suggest calls of distress, the sound of victory, and church bells reminiscent of “The City of ‘Hundreds of Towers.’” Husa himself stated that “it is not as beautiful a music as one always would like to hear. But we cannot always paint flowers, we cannot always speak in poetry about beautiful clouds, there are sometimes we would like to express the fight for freedom.”

During a rehearsal of the piece, Marine Band Director Jason K. Fettig encouraged the low brass to lean into the dissonant chords to add to the texture and pallet of colors. He noted that he loves the expressiveness and massive sound by the woodwinds and the “widest, deepest, most mysterious sounds” of the tuba section.

The concert concludes with two pieces specifically commissioned for the Marine Band: James Stephenson’s Wooden Dimes: Ballet for Wind Ensemble, and Michael Gilbertson’s Usonian Dwellings. Music often emerges from the inspiration of individuals, places, or moments in time that leave an indelible mark on a composer. In Wooden Dimes, Stephenson captures the musical spirit of the 1920s to honor one of the stars of the day—Fanny Brice, and Gilbertson’s Usonian Dwellings was inspired by the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The homages to these muses are engraved in their notes, and become a new piece of art in their own right.

The concert will take place at 2 p.m. at Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria. (4915 East Campus Drive, Alexandria, VA 22311). Admission is free, and free parking is available in the adjacent garage. Please note that masks and COVID vaccination or negative COVID test within 72 hours are required for all in-person concerts. The program is subject to change.