The College of the Sequoias Symphonic Winds will perform on July 3 at the Warner Theater in Washington, DC, to help celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary.
The concert is the final show in the Music Masters Concert Series, which also included a “jazz odyssey” in Athens, Greece, on May 30, and June concerts in Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Costa Rica.
Michael Tackett, a professor of music at COS, conducts the school’s Symphonic Band, Symphony Orchestra, Jazz Band and Musical Theatre Orchestra, and teaches a variety of music appreciation courses. He also conducts a community music group called the Sequoia Winds.
The College of the Sequoias Symphonic Winds, the band that will be playing in DC, is comprised of students from the College of the Sequoias Symphonic Band and community members from the Sequoia Winds.
“We started rehearsing as a group together at the end of May,” Tackett said. “Prior to that, one group learned a couple of the songs, the other group learned a couple of songs. Before we came together, at least everyone in the group had learned half the music. Then, the last month-and-a-half, we’ve been putting it all together.”
Tackett received the invitation for the concert after meeting a representative of Music Masters at a California All-State Music Education Conference.
“We just struck up this conversation, and I was telling him about our program at College of Sequoias,” Tackett said. “Over a couple months, we talked a few more times and then they invited us to go and perform.”
Tackett selected music for the repertoire to fit the 250th anniversary celebration.
“After programming the opening piece, ‘Call for Celebration,’ I looked at other pieces and thought, ‘How can we tie this all together in celebrating America?’
“The piece called ‘Symphonic Dance, No. 1,’ the composer wrote it because she was inspired by American composers like Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, and she was inspired by their dance music.”
The other music is also “celebrating American composers throughout the years,” including “American Hymnsong Suite.”
“We’re doing a piece called ‘El Camino Real,’ which is about California,” Tackett said. “With us being from California, I thought that would be kind of appropriate to celebrate where we are coming from.”
Tracy Harris, a flute instructor at COS, will be the featured soloist.
“She’s been teaching flute for our flute music majors,” Tackett said. “She’s been teaching with us for 12 years, so I have a close relationship with her, and she was really interested in going and performing with the group.”
Tackett wanted to thank the administration at COS for how helpful they have been about this performance.
“Brent Calvin, our president, has just been so supportive and really excited about the event,” he said. “The COS Foundation, which is headed by Tim Foster, chipped in and actually helped pay some of the funds to make this trip happen.”
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This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: College of the Sequoias Symphonic Winds to perform in Washington, DC
Reporting by Steve Pastis, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Steve Pastis, Visalia Times-Delta | USA TODAY Network
