David Rodeback's Blog

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Concerts in the Park: Excellent!

A fine new community band, a renowned local brass band, and a young, local country singer shared the stage Monday in American Fork. Together, they made a fine musical evening.

Last evening found the Rodebacks at the amphitheater at the Developmental Center in American Fork for a very satisfying evening of music. (In the interest of full disclosure, I note that I played trumpet in junior high, high school, and the first year of college. I have certain biases in the direction of bands, especially brass bands.)

The first group to perform was the Wasatch Winds, local musical giant John Miller's new community band. It was their second performance ever, but you couldn't tell it by listening. This is an uncommonly good community musical group, and I look forward to hearing them again. I didn't actually hear their entire performance, since the concert began before its publicized starting time, 7:30 p.m., but I heard enough. This is a significant step forward for the musical arts in American Fork.

The second group was a grade or two above even a fine community ensemble: the Utah Premier Brass. This six-year-old, thirty-member ensemble is not City-sponsored but is based in American Fork. An excellent British-style brass band, it has an energetic, tight sound; fine senses of programming, timing, and even humor; and a charming, talented (British) Artistic Director, Alan Boyer. My favorite piece was a brass band transcription of the famous Peter Wilhousky setting of "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

The third performer was local singer/songwriter Bryant Bunnell, a country singer-songwriter with a bit of a (local) gospel flair. It's not a genre I know well, but his performance was enjoyable enough. He seems to have his own set of female groupies, too, for what it's worth.

Finally, applause to whoever ordered the weather. It was pleasant, nearly perfect.

You may want to read MFCC's longer, more bubbly blog post on the same evening.

Comment on this entry
(Readable, relevant, civilized, substantive responses will be posted, regardless of position.)

Copyright 2006 by David Rodeback.
All rights reserved.
Permission is given to publish this article elsewhere on the Web or via e-mail only under these conditions: The article is published intact and unchanged, and is properly credited to the author; and a visible link is included to the article's page at LocalCommentary.com.