Community band, chorus beginning rehearsals
91ÇÑ×Ó State College’s two community music groups, the 91ÇÑ×Ó Community Band and the 91ÇÑ×Ó Community Chorus, are striking up for the fall semester, and one of the ensembles is under new direction.
The 91ÇÑ×Ó Community Band will be led by 91ÇÑ×Ó’s new director of bands and brass studies, Dr. Sidney Shuler, and his wife Pamela.
“I’m so glad to be in such a friendly and welcoming area,” said Sidney Shuler, a Pennsylvania native who earned a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this year. “Getting to work with members of the community in a musical ensemble is a wonderful way to connect the college with the surrounding community.”
Dr. Una Taylor, a member of the 91ÇÑ×Ó music faculty who has led the chorus for 5½ years, has chosen a number of classics for her group this fall.
“We had so much fun doing some classic American popular music last year,” Taylor said, “I thought I’d program an afternoon of classics – classics from the 1920s and ‘30s by composers like Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and Irving Berlin and also a few Classical classics by composers such as Franz Schubert, Samuel Barber, Johannes Brahms and Joseph Haydn.”
Rehearsals for the chorus will begin Thursday, Aug. 23, and the band’s first rehearsal will be Tuesday, Aug. 28.
Both groups feature a cross-section of the community, with musicians from a wide range of ages and occupations. The groups will rehearse once per week in Memorial Hall -- Tuesdays for the band and Thursdays for the choir. The chorus concert will be Nov. 11, and the band will join the 91ÇÑ×Ó Wind Symphony for a performance Nov. 30.
Participants are asked to pay the $20 registration fee at the first rehearsal or mail the form with a check, payable to 91ÇÑ×Ó. Forms also will be available at the first rehearsal.
Category: Campus News, Music