Concert of friendship

Where can you find teachers, nurses, military personnel, civil servants and office workers all under one roof, passionately enjoying the same music?

Tonight the best place is at the Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre when the St. Albert Community Band (SACB) partners with the Cosmopolitan Music Society for a concert of camaraderie.

Cosmopolitan musical director Garry Silverman and SACB conductor Dr. Angela Schroeder have pooled their talent and resources to create an eclectic repertoire of joint and individual band showcase material.

To kick-start the evening, each band performs seven individual numbers. But it’s the second half that could produce an indelible memory as the bands play a series of joint instrumentals as 110 musicians generate an overpowering wave of sound.

“The Cosmo hall is quite a bit different from the Arden stage. It has an acoustical treatment. The sound will be lovely, more full and I don’t think you’ll hear every mistake if there are any,” says SACB board president Gerry Buccini.

He says the band pairing grew out of 14 Cosmo players quietly joining the St. Albert band. It now totals about 65 musicians.

“Some came because they wanted to play a different or additional night of the week. And a lot came because of Dr. Schroeder and her reputation. When we hired her, we knew what we were getting. But sometimes I still can’t believe we got her,” Buccini adds.

SACB’s core work is Jupiter: Bringer of Jollity from Gustav Holst’s The Planets, an astrological rather than astronomical ode to the planets.

“Jupiter was the king of the Roman gods, a divine being who would rise in the sky and take command of man. This piece moves from one movement to the next with great joy. It’s happy, it’s lively and there’s great solo work.”

The band also plays Standard of St. George, a prominent British march, and Scenes from the Louvre, a five-moment mood piece that embodies different rooms in the great French museum.

“It’s exciting for us to play with Cosmo. Our concert is one of friendship and we are honoured to play with them and hope this is the first of many.”