OJR Low Brass Travels in Style

Photos Courtesy of Chris Ficca

The Owen J. Roberts High School March Band's low brass section rented a limo to take them and band director Todd Mengel to the most recent game at Daniel Boone High School.

So apparently the low bras section of the Owen J. Roberts High School marching band has a sense of style.

Who knew?

Well band director Todd Mengel knows now.

Apparently there is a tradition at OJR of each of the marching band's section trying to curry favor with the director in order to have the benefit of boarding the bus first.

Traditional means are often employed, such as skits or food.

"Needless to say, Mr. Mengel was beyond surprised."

But this year, the band's low-brass section thought outside the box.

Or in this case, outside the bus.

According info provided by parent Chris Ficca, friend of this blog, the section raised the bar on this tradition by renting a limo for Mengel, his wife and their section to take them to the game at Daniel Boone High School.

"The two young men in the dark suits are actually two
marching band 

members and the masterminds
behind the entire evening," Ficca wrote.

"Needless to say, Mr. Mengel was beyond surprised," Ficca wrote. "It was truly an evening to remember for him."

"In an age when we read and hear so much negative about our youth, I wanted to pass this along to you. I hope it makes you smile like it did for Mr. Mengel, OJR band staff and band students," Ficca wrote.

We very much appreciate and and all submissions to the Digital Notebook, whether about band events or other specialties, particularly when they are accompanied by pictures as fun as those Ficca provided.

And the Award Goes To.....

Photo by Evan Brandt

Daniel Boone Senior Alyx Blumstock, left, and Junior Megan Jolivette prepare to give out the awards at the end of the 43rd Annual Sound Spectacular Jazz Band Festival at Daniel Boone High School Friday.

If awards were given for best sound system (microphones work when they’re supposed to) and best program (handy fill-in sheet makes keeping track of awards easy) the Daniel Boone High School would win them both.

Both were awaiting those who stopped by for the 43rd Annual Sound Spectacular Jazz Festival, along with some stellar performances by area bands.

Photo by Evan Brandt

THE JUDGES TABLE: The judges for the evening were 

Chuck Dressler, Bill Powers and Bob Wagner.

Two bands, the Pottstown High School Jazz Band and the Boyertown Area Senior High School Big
Band, were both rated as “superior,” the highest rating given by judges.

The Phoenixville Area High School Jazz Band earned a rating of “outstanding” and the Daniel Boone High School Jazz Ensemble was the host, so it was not rated, although it did perform Friday night.

Boyertown earned both the outstanding saxophone section and the outstanding trumpet section awards while Pottstown earned the outstanding rhythm section award.

North Penn High School won the outstanding trombone section award.

Photo by Evan Brandt

There was a pretty good size crowd gather as the night went on.

Two saxophonists, Kelli Hess of Boyertown and Marley Bryan of Pottstown, earned outstanding soloists awards, as did Donnie Jackson of Phoneixville.

Honorable mentions for outstanding soloists included drummer Jake Wunderlich from Pottstown and
Bennett Stump, also a drummer, from Wilson High School.

Because I have posted the three songs performed by both the Pottstown and the Boyertown bands twice before on this blog, I will not embed them here tonight.

I will be uploading them to YouTube (Perhaps tomorrow, it’s very late) and you can view them on my YouTube channel.

Also, I will make a playlist of the area bands from the show.

Photo by Evan Brandt 

The ABC Select Jazz Band from Amity Elementary School also played.

Because I could slip out in between when bands like Upper Merion and Ephrata were playing, I was
able to re-charge the batteries in the mighty iPhone and so was able to capture a today of 12 performances on video.

Instead, I will embed the videos of Phoenixville and Daniel Boone, because many of you will not have heard them before.

But before we get to any of that, I should mention that two of the district's elementary school bands played in exhibition, the Birdsboro/Monocacy Elementary Band and the ABC Select Jazz Band from Amity Elementary.

I was charging my battery when the Birdsboro school played but I did get a video sample of the Amity group. Here they are playing "Salsa Special."



And now on to the high schools.

First up is Phoenixville, which began with a singer with a lovely voice for a piece called "Afternoon in Paris," and although they announced her name, it did not appear in the program, so I cannot share it with you.

The soloist names the program did share were Donnie Jackson on trumpet, Karl Sewick on guitar and Spncer Rakoczy on drums.



Despite what is said in the program, this was followed by a number titled "Lady Bird." The soloists are Nick Kissel on trombone and Jake Gould on alto saxophone.



And finally, a very nice work called "Living in a Dream," with some truly excellent trumpet work by soloist Donnie Jackson. It's easy to see (or, rather, hear) why he won an outstanding soloist award.



And now its on to the hosts, Daniel Boone High School and its Jazz Ensembl.

They began with a number named "Pegasus," by Hank Levy. Soloists are Alyx Blumenstock on baritone saxophone, Nichole Risley on flugel horn and Bethany Hallwell on Flute, as well as Justin Frey on alto saxophone.



This was followed by "Unit 7" by Sam Jones, which features Justin Frey as a soloist in alto saxophone.



And Daniel Boone finished up with "A Time for Love, which features James Kalenda on trombone as the soloist.



Oh yes, as for the schools outside The Mercury coverage area, they were rated as follows: Brandywine Heights High School earned an "outstanding," Reading High School earned an "outstanding," Wilson High School earned a "superior," North Penn High School earned a "superior," Ephrata High School earned an "outstanding," and Upper Merion High School earned an "oustanding."

All right, so its 2:15 a.m.

Here's your damn playlist of all the tunes played by Pottstown, Boyertown, Phoenixville and Daniel Boone:

Getting Jazzy at Daniel Boone

Photos from last year's performances, courtesy of the Daniel Boon Music Boosters

Daniel Boone High School is the next area high school to hold its jazz event and ten bands will perform over the course of more than five hours on Friday evening.

The concert takes place at Daniel Boone High School, 501 Chestnut St. in Birdsboro.

Admission is $6 for adults, $4 for children.

Five hours of great jazz for six bucks, how often do you get a deal like that.

Pizza, hot dogs and other snack foods will be available for sale.

The event is sponsored by the Cavalcade of Bands, Inc., and organized and presented by the Daniel Boone Music Boosters parent association.

What follows here is a list of the bands which will play and the time of their performance:

-- Brandywine Heights -- 5:30 p.m.

-- Pottstown High School -- 6 p.m.
-- Reading High School -- 6:30 p.m.
-- Wilson High School -- 7:10 p.m.
-- Boyertown Area Senior High School -- 7:40 p.m.
-- North Penn High School -- 8:15 p.m.
-- Ephrata High School -- 8:45 p.m.
-- Phoenixville High School -- 9:15 p.m.
-- Upper Merion High School -- 9:45 p.m.
-- Daniel Boone High School -- 10:15 p.m.

Also performing will be two Daniel Boone elementary school bands.

And if you're wondering what you might be in for if you go, here is a video of a performance by the Boyertown Area High School Big Band at the Jazz at Boyertown event on March 1.

(Pay no attention to the trembling hand holding the camera, and just listen to "Bemsha Swing"....)

More Free Music at Emmanuel Lutheran

The Westminster Kantorei, conducted by Andrew Megill and assisted by The Select Choir of Daniel Boone High School, will perform a free concert Sunday, April 29 at 4 p.m. at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 150 N. Hanover Street in Pottstown.


It is part of the Music at Emmanuel series.


(For more click on www.emmanuelpottstown.org or on Facebook.com/music.at.emmanuel)

The concert program will include:

• “Musikalische exequien” by Heinrich Schutz, 
• “The Glory and the Dream” by Richard Rodney Bennett, and 
• “Psalm 67” by Sven-David Sandström. 

 The stunningly beautiful funeral music of Schutz’s Musikalische exequien is considered one of the masterpieces of the early Baroque period, according to a release from Westminster Kantorei.

William Wordsworth’s poetic masterpiece “Intimations of Immortality” provides the text for Bennett’s "The Glory and the Dream", who, in addition to a 50-year career performing and writing jazz, has composed many classic film scores.

Sandström’s "Psalm 67" is a newly-commissioned work that received its world premier by this ensemble in October of 2011.

Special guests for this concert will be the select choir from Daniel Boone High School. Led by their conductor, Erin Benn, this outstanding high school ensemble will open the concert with performances of “I’ve Got the Music in Me” arranged by Deke Sharon and “With a Lily in Your Hand” by Eric Whitacre.

Founded in 2004, Westminster Kantorei is an auditioned chamber choir from the renowned Westminster Choir College specializing in early and contemporary music.

The ensemble, which is composed of approximately 24 graduate and undergraduate students, performs regularly with some of America’s leading specialists in Baroque music, including collaborations with violinist Nancy Wilson and vocal ensemble Fuma Sacra.

Recent seasons have included performances of Bach’s "Missa brevis in G Minor," cantatas, and passions, including the "St. Matthew Passion" at Avery Fisher Hall, with the Westminster Choir and the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Kurt Masur.

The ensemble has also performed works by Monteverdi ("Vespers of 1610, Sestina" and "Lamento della Ninfa"), Buxtehude ("Membra Jesu nostri"), Schütz, Schein, Telemann, Zelenka, Victoria, and Palestrina, as well as a concert of Latin American Baroque music.

Westminster Kantorei has also commissioned and premiered many works by such composers as Caleb Burhans, James Blachly, Doug Helvering, Philip Rice, Nathan Jones and Stefan Young.

This year, the ensemble premieres new works by Blake Henson, Daniel Elder, and the internationally acclaimed Swedish composer Sven-David Sandström, commissioned for the ensemble by the Soli Deo Gloria Foundation and the Westminster Choir College Department of Sacred Music.

MUSIC AT EMMANUEL is dedicated to bringing the live music of the highest calibre to the Pottstown community.

It is also dedicated to supporting young artists from our region as they develop their performing careers.

 All concerts in the 2011-12 season are offered free of charge to the public, and are funded by the generous support of individuals in our church and community who believe that great music has an essential place in our culture and community.