"A Celtic Festival" by Naugatuck Community Band

All photos by Nancy Sasso Janis

Naugatuck Community Band presented their annual St. Patrick’s Day Concert at Seymour Middle School on Saturday, March 12, 2016 at 7:00pm. “A Celtic Festival” was sponsored by the Seymour Culture and Arts. The band was conducted by Joel Knecht.

The band members dressed in black and white with lots of green St. Patrick’s Day accessories. Their conductor even sported a bright green patterned tie. He told me before the performance began that the band had selected some challenging pieces and he was grateful that due to the lack of Snow Day cancellations, they had plenty of time to rehearse them to be ready for the concert date.

The concert opened with “Three Celtic Dances” by Brian Balmages, a huge piece with three movements. These included the lively “Reel,” a slower piece that built nicely titled “Air,” and a lively, rousing “Jig."”Sou Gan,” a Welsh Folk Song arranged by Larry Clark, was a part of “Empire of the Sun.” This haunting piece switched to a minor key in the middle.

Music from the TV series “Game of Thrones” was written by Ramin Djawadi and was arranged by Michael Brown. Leroy Anderson’s “The Wearing of the Green” was arranged by Douglas Wagner.

“Highlights from Brave” featured music from the 2012 animated Disney/Pixar movie written by Patrick Doyle and arranged by Sean O’Loughlin. It was performed without bagpipes or Irish harps but was stirring nonetheless. “Ancient Irish Hymn” was a traditional tune also arranged by Sean O’Loughlin based upon an incantation titled St. Patrick’s Breastplate and featured a solo on bells by drummer CJ Janis.

“The Lord of The Dance” was the music of the Riverdance tours written by Ronan Hardiman arranged by Richard Saucedo. “Music From Braveheart” was the music of the Mel Gibson movie was written by James Horner arranged by Johnnie Vinson. “Irish Tune from County Derry” was written by Percy ALdridge Grainger.

The Irish concert ended with another large work entitled “First Suite in E-flat for Military Band” by Gustav Holst with three movements, “Chaconne,” ”Intermezzo, and “March.”

Following the concert, Mr. Knecht sent the following message to the members of the NCB via e-mail. “Great job tonight, it was an all around wonderful performance and the biggest audience turnout we've had this year too!”