“American Portraits” will be at 2:30 p.m., Mar. 2 at Hamilton High School. Admission is free and the concert is open to the public.
The band will entertain audiences with the music of well-known American composers including, John Philip Sousa, Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, as well as lesser-known composers including William Bolcom, Joseph Willcox Jenkins and Rossano Galante.
“On a personal note, the music of Aaron Copland is very important to me. I had the opportunity, many years ago, to play in two orchestras under the baton of Mr. Copland in the ’70s and attended his guest appearance as guest conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, also in the ’70s. I look forward to conducting his music during the concert,” Nichols said.
In high school, Nichols was a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra as a clarinetist. At the time, Copland did a rehearsal with the CSYO that aired on WCET. That same weekend, he was in Cincinnati to guest-conduct the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Then, a few years later when Nichols was in college, playing in the orchestra at Miami University Oxford, Copland was the resident composer/guest conductor.
“It was a really good experience playing for the person that wrote the pieces. He was probably the best composer-conductor I’ve ever played for, because he could hear everything that was going on in rehearsal, and he knew exactly what he wanted,” Nichols said. “He had the best hearing and musical ears of anybody I’ve ever played for…I’ve never forgotten those experiences, playing under his baton.”
The music the band will play spans several decades, covering songs many Americans grew up listening to, as well as more modern and contemporary pieces. From Bernstein’s “America” (from “West Side Story”) and Copland’s “Fanfare For The Common Man” which premiered in Cincinnati in 1944, the band will also perform newer works, including “The Graceful Ghost Rag” from Bolcom, and “God’s Country” by Galante.
“We have John Philip Sousa’s march, ‘The Washington Post,’ which was written in 1889, and the most recent composition, which is ‘God’s Country,’ that was written by Rossano Galante in 2014. So, we’re talking about a span of over a century of American music,” Nichols said.
The Southwestern Ohio Symphonic Band is made up of about 70 community members, including professional and semi-professional musicians, and retired music educators from across the Tristate area, including Dayton, Lawrenceburg, Ind., and northern Kentucky, who volunteer each season. The band is sponsored by the Middletown Symphony Orchestra Legacy Fund, the Miriam G. Knoll Charitable Foundation, Buddy Roger/Willis Music and the band’s many patrons.
HOW TO GO
What: Southwestern Ohio Symphonic Band spring concert, “American Portraits”
When: 2:30 p.m., Mar. 2
Where: Hamilton High School, 1165 Eaton Ave., Hamilton
Cost: Free
More info: sosband.org
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