NC Community Band Festival brings musicians to VGCC
Musicians from around the state converged at the Vance-Granville Community College Civic Center on March 31, when the college hosted the third annual North Carolina Community Band Festival. During the day, members of three bands — the Vance-Granville Community Band, the Greensboro Concert Band and the Durham Community Concert Band — practiced with professional musicians and guest clinician Verena Moesenbichler-Bryant. Dr. Moesenbichler-Bryant is Director of the Duke University Wind Symphony and Visiting Assistant Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke. She also conducts the North Carolina Saxophone Ensemble, which includes among its members VGCC music instructor Michael Stephenson, who coordinated the festival.
To round out the day, each band performed at an evening concert and then combined to form one “mass band” of around 200 members under Moesenbichler-Bryant’s direction. A native of Austria, Moesenbichler-Bryant said it had been a pleasure to work with all the musicians. The combined band performed “Three Dances” by Renaissance-era composer Tielman Susato, “Seventeen Come Sunday” from Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “English Folk Song Suite,” the world premiere of “Interruptions” by Moesenbichler-Bryant’s husband, award-winning composer Steven Bryant of Durham, and finally the piece that traditionally ends each community band festival, “Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Philip Sousa.
Earlier in the evening, the Vance-Granville Community Band, a combination of students and interested citizens from throughout the community college’s service area under Stephenson’s direction, kicked off the concert. Their program included “A Century of Progress March” by Sousa as well as music from the classic film, “The Sound of Music,” and from the television series, “Band of Brothers.”
The Greensboro Concert Band, directed by Evan Feldman, offered selections including “ZING!” by McAllister, “Divertimento for Band” by Persichetti and “Droylsden Wakes” from “Folksongs for Band Suite No. 3” by Stanhope.
The Durham Community Concert Band, under the direction of Tom Shaffer, presented “H.M. Jollies” by Alford, “Incantation and Dance” by Chance, “Pineapple Poll” by Gilbert and Sullivan, and “Undertow” by Mackey.
Stephenson thanked the volunteers for their passion for “community music-making,” and J.F. Webb High School, Northern Vance High School and Louisburg High School for supporting the festival and loaning equipment.
Above: Verena Moesenbichler-Bryant conducts a mass band, including around 200 members of the Vance-Granville Community Band, the Greensboro Concert Band and the Durham Community Concert Band, at the conclusion of the North Carolina Community Band Festival on March 31, 2012 in the VGCC Civic Center. (VGCC photo)
