A blend of woodwind, brass and percussion reverberated around the walls of a packed Redfern Arts Center Main Theatre, as the KSC’s Concert Band, along with Keene High School’s Band, performed a concert focused on themes of immigrants, immigration, identity, grief and devotion.
Dr. John Hart, associate professor of music and Concert Band director, spoke to the concert’s theming in opening remarks to the crowd of 339.
“This evening’s concert originally started in my head as something themed around reflections of America, and as they so often do, it morphed into something completely different and took on a new identity, which was themed on immigrants, immigration, music by children of immigrants, and then it morphed into something else when Mr. Joe Conti, the director of the Keene High School Band, suggested that we do a collaboration,” Hart said.
Hart added that Conti, KSC alum ‘18, suggested the piece, “Suite from MASS,” a musical theatre work composed by American composer Leonard Bernstein, be played at the concert.
“It seemed very fitting because I don’t know if you’ve noticed, we haven’t been super great as a country with respect to immigrants and immigration and some of the themes that we’ve seen play out through history are timely now,” Hart said, adding that Bernstein suggested making music more intensely, more beautifully and more devotedly in the face of violence.
Junior Killian Bailey, an inductee into the Pi Kappa Lambda music honors society and co-honoree of the Douglas Nelson Outstanding Concert Band Member Award, conducted “The Liberty Bell,” an American military march composed by John Philip Sousa.
Earlier in the performance, Bailey was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda along with junior Maxwell Berry and Dr. Andrew Smith, a music faculty member who teaches courses in music theory.
“Pi Kappa Lambda represents our collective devotion to music and to the goals of high accomplishment demonstrated by faculty and students,” Dr. Heather Gilligan, music department chair, said as the three were announced as inductees. “Those who became members today of Pi Kappa Lambda have demonstrated both musical and academic excellence.”
As for the Douglas Nelson Outstanding Concert Band Member Award, Bailey was honored alongside fellow Concert Band member and junior Hailey Taylor. The award, named in honor of the college’s first-ever Concert Band director, is given annually on a ballot of their fellow musicians.
“Doug was responsible for bringing many of those people through the door,” Hart said of Nelson. “His dedication to the creative process and his commitment to excellence in teaching have been instrumental, pun intended, in making the Redfern a vibrant home for the arts on campus and in the region.”
Taylor and Bailey were only the second instance within Concert Band history of there being two recipients within one year, according to Hart.
Also performed by the KSC Concert Band was a musical rendition of the famous poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal, “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus.
Hart explained the band’s performance of the piece, rearranged by Andrew Pease at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., made for the first recording of it.
Dr. Brittney Redler, vocal faculty, accompanied the band vocally.
A nearly 10-minute-long piece was also performed by the KSC Concert Band, that being “Cover the Walls” by Ursula Kwong-Brown. The piece refers to the covering of the walls at Angel Island between 1910 and 1940, where Chinese immigrants inscribed hundreds of poems onto detention barracks walls as an act of defiance and emotional release.
“The notes coming out of this ensemble were by the people being helped at Angel Island,” Hart said. “It’s intense, and it should move you slightly–or a lot, actually.”
Once the KHS band took the stage, Conti conducted “An American Elegy,” a piece composed reflecting on the lives lost during the Columbine High School massacre.
“Every single time I perform this piece, I end up tearing up, I end up crying, because the people who are performing it for me are doing an amazing job. They’re so young, and they have such bright futures ahead of them,” Hart said to the audience, asking members to reflect on the band members on stage whom they love, and suggesting action be taken to stem gun violence in the country.
Ending off the performance was Bernstein’s “Suite from MASS,” the piece Conti had suggested for the event.
“We are rededicating ourselves in a way to make music more intensely, more beautifully, and more devotedly than ever before,” Hart closed with.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
