The Los Alamos Community Winds play July 4 at Overlook Park. Courtesy/LACWWhat can we expect from a Community Winds concert titled “Godzilla Eats Las Vegas and Other Musical Encounters?” Expect the unexpected, of course! The Los Alamos Community Winds will present the concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18 at White Rock Baptist Church. As usual, the concert is free, with a suggested donation of $10.
Fifty-two musicians will take the stage for this concert, one of the largest groups the Winds have assembled for a concert. The high level of difficulty of the music and the many other musical commitments of the players made putting together the concert a challenge, Winds Musical and Artistic Director Ted Vives said.
The concert comes on the heels of the Community Winds’ recent third place finish in the community band division of The American Prize competition, 2014. The band was selected from applications reviewed this summer from all across the United States. The American Prize is a series of new, non-profit, competitions unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, ensembles and composers in the United States based on submitted recordings. The Winds placed second in 2012.
“Around 50 bands compete,” Vives said. “It’s a very big honor and a testament to the effort, time and skills of our musicians.”
“Los Alamos is so unique,” Vives said. “Communities 10 times our size don’t have this quality and breadth of music. It makes my job really fun to work with these really accomplished musicians.”
The concert takes its name from one of the pieces being performed, “Godzilla Eats Las Vegas,” by Eric Whitacre (b. 1970). “Godzilla Eats Las Vegas” was commissioned by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It is envisioned as a movie, which is included in the program so audience members can follow along.
“This piece gives us a chance to be silly,” Vives said “It makes fun of a lot of things about Las Vegas.”
The rest of the concert will be just as enjoyable, if not quite so silly. The concert opens with “Festive Overture,” a 1954 composition by Dmitri Shostakovich, followed by John Philip Sousa’s “The Gladiator.”
Also on the program is “Canzona” by Peter Mennin (1923 – 1983) composed in 1951. It is the American composer’s only work for concert band and has been a very popular piece for many years.
“It doesn’t get performed as often as it used to,” Vives said. “It’s not a cookie-cutter kind of piece.”
If “Canzona” is well known, “Generalståbens Honørmarsj,” by Norwegian composer Oskar Borg is a piece “probably no one has heard of,” Vives said. Vives described the piece as “a neat little march.” It was composed in 1916.
Modern American composer Brian Balmages’ 2010 work “Silence Overwhelmed,” gives the upper woodwinds a real workout, Vives said. “Expect an “incredible emotional journey,” he said.
Texas born John Barnes Chance composed “Variations on a Korean Folk Song” in 1966.
While stationed with the U.S. Army in Korea in the late 50s, Chance became fascinated by the popular folk melody “Arirang,” using it as the basis for “Variations on a Korean Folk Song.” “Arirang” is traditional Korean song of love and heartbreak that can be found in many variations, with an origin that may date back 1,000 years, Vives explained.
Inclusion of this piece, inspired by a song heard during wartime service in a foreign land, is especially fitting, because this performance by the Winds is part of the 13th Annual Daniel Pearl World Music Days – a global network of concerts that uses the universal language of music to diminish hatred, respect differences, and reach out in global friendship. This is the ninth year the Winds have participated.
Daniel Pearl, the journalist and musician kidnapped and assassinated by terrorists in Pakistan, was a classically-trained violinist, as well as a fiddler and mandolin player who joined musical groups wherever he traveled.
World Music Days commemorates his Oct.10 birthday and carries on his mission of connecting diverse people through words and music.
“Music can cross barriers,” Vives said. “Sometimes we forget that. It’s very much in the spirit of community band.”
