Delta Winds

This week’s theme: Empty

Yes, music lovers, that is an empty suitcase. And my mission this evening is to fill it with all the things I need to take to New York City. The washer and dryer are humming away (washing the kids’ clothes for next week, as well as some of my own) and I have piles of things stacked around the house ready to put in the suitcase after I check them off my packing list.Next: Time to practice my music since we have our send-off concert tomorrow and then leave on Sunday morning for New York City.

The house and stage in this photo are empty:

But they won’t be on Wednesday evening when my fellow musicians and I take that stage and play our hearts out!Here’s the program:

 

Fanfare – The world premiere of a specially commissioned piece by retired San Joaquin Delta College Music Department faculty member Max Simoncic
An American Elegy
Scootin’ on Hardrock
Introduction and Dance featuring a tuba solo by Doug Hunt, principal tuba with the Stockton Symphony
Valdres
Concertino – Movement III featuring a vibraphone solo by Brian Kendrick
Four Scottish Dances
El Camino Real

As you will see from my weekly column at Write Stuff, I will not be blogging, reading e-mail or cruising the ‘Net for the next week! So I will be back with pictures and details about my trip next week!

photo hunt

Thanks for reading “Colloquium”!

S.J. band headed to Carnegie Hall

Ian Hill
Record Staff Writer

The Delta Winds is one of two showcase bands performing Wednesday at the hall as part of the New York Wind Band Festival. Local residents can hear the ensemble’s Carnegie Hall program during a send-off concert Saturday at San Joaquin Delta College’s Atherton Auditorium.

It will be the Delta Winds’ only local performance and include the premiere of “Fanfare” by Stockton composer Max Simoncic. The band was assembled expressly for the New York trip.

Playing Carnegie Hall “will be a life-changing experience, something you never forget,” said Bob Gross, 64, Delta Winds French horn player and Lodi Community Band conductor. “It’s the chance of a lifetime.”

It also can be intimidating.

“I’ve had a few sleepless nights,” said Delta College band director Art Holton III, 56, who organized and conducts the Delta Winds. “We’ve got to be really good.”

Holton said he was invited by festival organizers to bring a band to the event. He then discussed forming the Delta Winds with the Stockton Concert Band, which he also conducts, as well as the Lodi Community Band.

Members of the two groups include college students and local high school music teachers, who recruited some of their pupils. High school students were required to audition to join the band.

“Delta’s a community college,” Holton said. “Delta should be here to do community-wide activities, not just Delta activities. This is a golden opportunity. Why not open it up to lots of folks?”

Festival coordinator Dana Luikart said the Delta Winds can show festival audiences how teen and adult musicians can perform together. High school bands from Tennessee, Virginia, Florida and New York also will attend the festival, he said.

“The best part of (being a Delta Winds member) is performing with young people,” said clarinet player Ray Lippert, 72, of Acampo. “It takes me back to when I was young.”

It’s not the first time a Stockton-area group has performed at Carnegie Hall. Holton said he took the venue’s stage with the Stockton Chorale about two decades ago.

Delta Winds member Amelia Towle, 19, of Stockton played Carnegie Hall last year with the Central Valley Youth Symphony. A bass clarinet player, Towle came back with a souvenir T-shirt that reads “Ask me about my debut at Carnegie Hall.”

“It was really cool,” she said. “The sound is incredible.”

Contact reporter Ian Hill at (209) 943-8571 or ihill@recordnet.com.

Lodi Community Band prepped for N.Y. gig at renowned Carnegie Hall

Last updated: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 7:08 AM PDT

Members of the Lodi Community Band will travel to New York City for a rare opportunity to perform at the prestigious Carnegie Hall next week.

Dubbed the “Delta Winds,” the band is a 110-piece symphonic ensemble comprised of four groups from Lodi and Stockton. It was chosen to perform on the Ron Perelman Stage in the Isaac Stern Auditorium as one of 10 performances being held at the New York Wind Band Festival.

Led by San Joaquin Delta College’s band director Arthur Holton, Delta Winds includes members of the Lodi Community Band, Stockton Concert Band, Delta College Band, Brentwood Band and students from Lodi and Stockton high schools.

The 110 musicians will give a one-hour performance Wednesday night in New York City, and Holton said he plans to take advantage of every second. They will perform 10 pieces of music, starting with the world premier of “Fan Fair” that has been specially composed by local composer Max Simoncic.

Holton will lead the group in the main act, “Four Scottish Dances.”

“It’s one of my favorite pieces and you only get to play (Carnegie) once,” Holton said.

For Lodi lawyer and flutist Janie Hickok Siess, playing at Carnegie Hall is the equivalent to taking a case all the way to the Supreme Court.

“Carnegie Hall is the Holy Grail of music. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for most” she said. “It’s an honor just to step foot on stage.”

Like her fellow band members, Hickok Siess said she has plans for the rest of her week in New York. When they are not making stops at Ground Zero, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, Hickok Siess will make it a girl’s trip and see Broadway’s “Jersey Boys” and “Mary Poppins” with her former college roommate.

The cost of the trip for most musicians is about $1,800, Holton said. Each band member did their own fund-raising and have succeeded without help from the college.

The group will leave Sunday and return the following Thursday.

Contact reporter Lauren Nelson at laurenn@lodinews.com.