The MC3 Band will showcase the combined talents of its members during their fall concert performance on Thursday, November 20, 7 p.m. in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre inside the Clayton Center for the Arts. The event is free and open to the public.
Since 1992, the MC3 Band has achieved something truly outstanding: integrating members of the Maryville community and Maryville College students to create a large band ensemble of over 60 artists.
As a wind band — a band composed of symphonic band instruments — the MC3 Band works best when selections are chosen for its performances based on quality rather than programming concerts around a theme, said Jay Romines, conductor of the ensemble.
“In the old days, band music was just a transcription of orchestra music,” Romines said. “Since the 1900s, there were very few composers who wrote specifically for a band. The Eastman Wind Ensemble started in the ’60s to have music composed especially for wind bands, so there is quite a lot of band music that the general audience would not be familiar with.”
According to Romines, the fall concert will feature six selections of music from the band’s repertoire. As is tradition, the MC3 Band — officially known as the Maryville College-Community Concert Band — will open the performance with a march, followed by a more traditional selection. The band will then incorporate a brand-new selection from the 20th century before performing another contemporary piece.
The band will play a total of six songs, including:
- “Free Lance March,” by Sousa;
- “America the Beautiful,” by Samuel Ward and arranged by Carmen Dragon;
- “Halcyon Hearts,” by Katahj Copley;
- “The Low-Down Brown Get Down,” by Omar Thomas;
- “Continuum,” by Robert Buckley; and
- “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing,” by Stevie Wonder.
The MC3 band prides itself on welcoming artists of all ages and experience, including high school students, current MC students and MC alumni.
“It’s no different conducting musicians of varying ages,” Romines said. “They are all musicians.”
For more information, call the Clayton Center box office at 865-981-8590.
Maryville College is a nationally-ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville. Maryville College offers more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”
Karen Eldridge, Executive Director of Communications: karen.eldridge@maryvillecollege.edu.
