TOHS Band presents winter concert

Having just completed its marching band season, the Thousand Oaks High School Band, led by Marty Martone, presented its annual Winter Concert last week, with the unit separated into three smaller groups. With the performing arts center festively decorated with lit wreaths, red and white faux Christmas trees, a snowman in the wings and reflective snowflakes hanging from the proscenium, the groups presented an entertaining and varied concert, although there were only a few works specifically geared to the holiday season.

In the first half of the show, each group performed three selections. The Symphonic Band is considered the introductory group for the high school. This group’s set consisted of three brief but powerful pieces. “Flourish for Wind Band” (1939) was one of several works for band written by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Only 90 seconds long, it was written as an overture to a pageant at Royal Albert Hall. “Salvation Is Created” by Pavel Tschesnokoff was originally a choral work that was arranged for band. The Symphonic Band concluded with “Clouds That Sail in Heaven,” a concert fanfare based on the hymn “All Creatures of Our God and King.”

The Wind Symphony, the next level up in the TOHS band hierarchy, played the March from “An Original Suite” by Gordon Jacob, written in 1928 for military band. The elegant march features brilliant moving parts for the flutes and trumpets, with an Irish tinge to the majestic melody.

The American folk song “Shenandoah” followed, in an arrangement for concert band by USC music professor Frank Ticheli. This piece featured an exquisite, rolling, canonlike sequence played by the flute section. The Wind Symphony’s final number was Steve Hodges’ “Medal of Valor,” a vibrant march whose powerful minor melody is passed from section to section.

The advanced group at the high school is the Wind Ensemble, which began its set with “Gavorkna Fanfare,” the most popular work by band composer Jack Stamp. The piece uses dissonance to attract the audience’s attention and then develops into a majestic, almost frantic, warlike conclusion. The tone poem “October,” by Eric Whitacre, was prefaced by a recitation of “Hounds of Spring” by Michelle Bonds. This work’s loping, 6/8 melody moves into a more pastoral section, followed by a reprise of the initial line.

After intermission, the combined bands joined together as the focus shifted to the holiday season. After a thrilling rendition of John Philip Sousa’s rarely heard “Gladiator March,” the atmosphere lightened with a rendering of “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

“Festive Sounds of Hanukkah” by Bill Holcombe combines many of the more popular melodies associated with the Jewish holiday, including “Ma’oz Tzur” (“Rock of Ages”), “S’vivon” and “Dreidel, Dreidel.” A tradition of the TOHS band program is Leroy Anderson’s original arrangement of “Sleigh Ride.” The band performed it complete with crisp whip cracks played on a slapstick. The audience was invited to join in for the final medley, consisting of four popular secular Christmas hits: “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” “Silver Bells,” “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

Next up for the band members is a trip to Phoenix, where they will compete in the Fiesta Bowl Parade and National Band Championship, one of the most prestigious marching band competitions in the nation. The field show, staged at the University of Phoenix, will be on New Year ’s Day. On Jan. 2, the TOHS band will march through downtown Phoenix playing “The Gladiator March.” The winner will receive the coveted Grand Master’s Trophy.

If you can’t join them, you can watch a webcast of the festivities at www.mrvideoonline.com.