Friday, April 6, 2018
By ZACK SHIVELY
The Boardman band programs had their annual winter concert on March 1 in the Boardman Performing Arts Center.
The concert featured the symphonic band and wind ensemble, as well as performances from smaller ensembles. Thomas Ruggieri directed the small ensembles and wind ensemble, while directors Timothy Tuite and Michael Shevock worked with the symphonic band.
The night began with small group performances in the hallway in front of the BPAC when the doors first opened. These performances included low brass and flute ensembles. The percussion ensemble began the event at 7 p.m. in the BPAC.
The symphonic band played after the percussion group. Tuite said that this year’s set was atypical because they did not have a march or a slower song. He told the audience the performance would be more like the score to an action film. They began with Robert W. Smith’s “Eternal Peaks” and Richard Saucedo’s “Nightsong.”
Tuite directed the students for “Roaring Run” by Robert Traugh, a colleague of Tuite. Traugh met with the symphonic band for an hour to work on the piece and attended the concert.
Shevock then had volunteers from the wind ensemble join the group for their closer, “Dr. Who: Through Time and Space.“ He explained the premise of the BBC program “Dr. Who” to the audience. The piece they played featured several themes from the show. The students used an iPad app to play a theremin sound, which is used during some of the themes.
After the symphonic band finished, the wind ensemble set up for their performance. In between the bands, Ruggieri directed the flute choir for “Farendole” by Georges Bizet and arranged by Ervin Monroe. Ruggieri also spoke to the audience about previous and future performances for the Boardman bands.
The wind ensemble began with “Hands Across the Sea” by John Philip Sousa, then they played “Armenian Dances (Part 1)” by Alfred Reed and “The Summit” by John Moss. Ruggieri obliged the students’ request to play John Barnes Chance’s “Variations on a Korean Folk Song,” a piece they played years ago, for this year’s concert.
They ended the night with a John Higgins arranged medley of songs from the Disney film “The Lion King,” which included five songs from the movie beginning with “Circle of Life” and concluding with “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” The group previously performed the piece at Boardman’s 100th Anniversary Celebration of the Arts.
The Boardman bands performed at a competition on March 9, and will also perform at their spring concert on May 2 and a Memorial Day concert on May 28. Other groups, such as their jazz band and drumline, will have performances as well, including the spring jazz concert June 1 and drumline at Relay For Life on May 18. The bands schedule for the school year ends on June 5 with a rock show at Boardman Park.