– A Summer Serenade –

The PLUMBING FACTORY BRASS BAND
Henry Meredith, Conductor
on Wednesday evening, June 8, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.,
in Byron United Church, London

Following their acclaimed and unique “Meet the Plumbers” performance last month, the Plumbing Factory Brass Band will appear in “A Summer Serenade” on Wednesday evening, June 8, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.  The concert will be held once again in southwest London’s Byron United Church.  This time, the repertoire will be primarily music for the full ensemble.  The “Plumbers” will nevertheless reprise highlights of their sectional chamber ensemble presentations, which proved to be popular additions during their innovative April 20th anniversary concert.

The cheerful arrangement called “Joy, Peace & Happiness,” which introduces each section in turn, will once again serve as the concert opener.  Offenbach’s exciting and melodious overture, Orpheus in the Underworld, will follow, ending with the familiar Can-Can (or Infernal Galop, as the composer himself termed it).  An award-winning “March of the Plumbers,” written expressly for the band twelve years ago by Gabriel Major-Marothy, an alumni member of the cornet section, provides a challenging tour de force for the entire band.  “Willow Echoes” will feature conductor Henry Meredith, re-enacting the role of composer Frank Simon, one of Sousa’s famous cornet soloists.  The virtuoso solo’s title refers to Willow Grove Park, the Pennsylvania home for many summer serenades put on by John Philip Sousa’s band (the amusement park’s music pavilion is shown in the photo on the upper left corner of the attached poster).  Sousa’s rarely heard “Our Flirtations” March, along with his well-known two-step, Washington Post, represent the March King’s variable style, while two more marches, by Sousa’s Austrian equivalent, Josef Wagner, are on the program.  These are Tiroler Holzhackerbuab’n  and Under the Double Eagle, both frequently played by Sousa’s band as well.

Harking back to one of the earliest brass band pieces, Giovanni Gabrieli’s Sonata pian’ e forte, written in 1597, was the first musical composition to indicate specific instruments to play each part – in this case 6 trombones plus a cornetto and a viola in two separate groups placed on opposite sides of Venice’s San Marco cathedral.  As its title suggests, it is also the first piece to specify contrasting dynamics (soft and loud).  Following this stereophonic music from the renaissance, the PFBB trombones will play a modern “Jazz Invention.”  The other sections of the band will be featured similarly in special music for their instruments – the bass tubas and euphoniums will play two famous marches, the cornets and Flugelhorns will serenade with the familiar Pink Panther theme, and the horns will evoke a delightful hunting scene by Gioachino Rossini.  The entire ensemble will finish the concert with three final pieces:  the light-hearted Dodge City, written by UWO music librarian Jeff Smallman; a descriptive overture by Calixa Lavallée called The Bridal Rose; and Henry Fillmore’s The Klaxon, named for signal horns often mounted on cars and bicycles.  Another type of klaxon is the vuvuzela, the plastic ‘stadium horn’, which gained notoriety as a drone noise-maker during the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa in June 2010.  Audience members may be invited to join in the finale by “tooting their own horns”!

Admission is $15 ($10 for students) at the door.  If tickets are purchased in advance from band members, or reserved by calling 519-471-1250, 519-659-3600, or 519-451-2212, the price is reduced by $2.  Refreshments and conversation will follow the concert.

Please join us to bask in a sunny summer serenade of exciting and seldom heard music, played by the small and large brass subcommittees of our Plumbers Union.

Dr. Henry Meredith
Artistic Director and Conductor
PLUMBING FACTORY BRASS BAND and its subsidiary ensembles

Poster for PFBB Concert – June 8, 2016

PFBB Program for June 8, 2016