City of Fairfax Band Presents a Concert of Original Works

The City of Fairfax Band to Perform “A Southern Jubilee”: a newly commissioned work by renowned film and TV composer Bruce Broughton

This year, The City of Fairfax Band celebrates 50 years since it was formed by a group of Fairfax High School Band musicians who decided to start a summer ensemble. Over the past half-century, the Band has turned into a semi-professional group as many of its own became music educators and recruited other very talented musicians from the community and the military.

Along the way, the Band has won many national awards, and has also commissioned several original works by well-known American composers. This fall, the Band will premiere a new concert band piece at its October 26 concert by nine-time Emmy Award winner, composer Bruce Broughton. The new work, “Southern Jubilee,” is an energetic, celebratory piece commissioned by The City of Fairfax Band Association to commemorate their golden anniversary.

While this is the top feature of the concert, entitled “Originals,” every piece on the program is an original concert band piece commissioned by the Association since 1969. Surprisingly, only about half of the musicians from whom the group has commissioned pieces are primarily known for concert band works.

“I tend to look for composers from other genres, particularly film composers, because I do consider film to be one of the uniquely American musical genres,” says Robert Pouliot, who celebrates his silver anniversary as Artistic Director this season.
“Southern Jubilee” continues that tradition.

Broughton has composed many familiar motion picture soundtracks and television scores including “Gunsmoke,” “Dallas,” “Quincy,” “Rescuers Down Under,” “Homeward Bound,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “How the West was Won,” and “Hawaii Five-0,” as well as new concert works, over the past 45 years. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the film score to “Silverado.”

In commissioning new pieces, the Association not only offers fresh music to local audiences but also enriches the repertoire available to the entire band community. The majority of the organization’s commissioned works are later published and available for other ensembles to perform.

For example, the band commissioned “Foundation” by Mark Camphouse in honor of popular band president Ray Abell. The music, which reflects both Ray’s love of lively tunes and the peace of favorite hymns “Be Still My Soul” and “How Firm a Foundation,” has been performed on tour by the U.S. Navy Band and recorded by wind ensembles as far away as Japan and Norway.
Another example is “Aragon 1945 – 1952,” by Ira Hearshen. Band member and Chicago native Laura Boernhoft, a clarinetist, funded the commissioning of the piece, which is named for a legendary dance hall in Chicago. Each movement is based on popular dance music of the era, with each movement’s title evocative of a tune by which it was inspired: “Sentimental” “Tennessee,” “Ballerina,” “Enchanted” and “Accentuate.“

“It's rather an odd work for symphonic band purists, based as it is on ballroom dance styles, but it is beginning to gain some traction in the adult community band world -- which is exactly the audience we were aiming for,” Pouliot says.

“Foundation” and “Aragon 1945 – 1952” will be among the “originals” featured on the concert. Rounding out the program are commissioned works such as “And the grass sings in the meadows” by Travis J. Cross, based on the final stanza of the “Spring Carol” by Scottish poet Robert Louis Stevenson; “Overture for Symphonic Band, Opus 364” by David Uber; and “The City of Fairfax Band March” by Samuel H. Laudenslager, Sr.

More information is provided on the wWeb site, www.fairfaxband.org.

“Originals” a concert
By the City of Fairfax Band
October 26, 2019, 7:30 pm
Fairfax High School
3501 Rebel Run
Fairfax, Virginia
www.fairfaxband.org
Tickets online and at the door