Wind Symphony delights crowd with familiar tunes

As darkness begins to fall on Friday, the audience buzzes as they wait for the start of the concert. Around 7 p.m., the mass of people attending quickly grows to 100, adding to the chatter.
When the players begin to come onto the stage of the Memorial Hall Auditorium, the audience quiets, and those standing take their seats. The stage draws their attention. Sidney Shuler, conductor of the symphony and assistant professor of music at CSC, enters last.
After a few short tuning notes for the band, he turns to welcome the audience and give a short explanation of the pieces about to be performed.
Once he turns again, at his cue, the performers raise their instruments and all eyes are on their conductor. “Selections from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas,’” by Danny Elfman, arranged by Michael Brown, begin the show, the songs easy to identify for those familiar with Tim Burton’s 1993 film. The symphony did the selections justice, the songs such as “What’s This?,” “Sally’s Song,” and “This is Halloween,” were easily identifiable.
The soloists were prompted to rise first, followed by the rest of the band and then they all bowed together.
Jacob Voorhis, junior of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, and Natsuki Sato joined the symphony on the guitar and synthesizer, respectively, for the “Symphonic Suite from ‘The Lord of the Rings,’” by Howard Shore, arranged by Victor López.
While the “Lord of the Rings” piece didn’t have noticeable songs in the same way “Nightmare Before Christmas” had, it was still recognizably something from the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy for those familiar with the film score. The low brass and bass instruments rolled through the auditorium, extremely distinguishable from that of the higher pitched instruments. Come the end of the piece, while the guitar wasn’t a distinct sound of its own, it made the song sound unique compared to the others on the program. Soloists were singled out, only one or two of each section playing towards the end of the song, significantly decreasing the volume and adding something to the individuality of the piece.
The band gave another bow before Shuler gave a brief description of the upcoming song, “‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ (Symphonic Suite)” by Klaus Bedelt, arranged by John Wasson. The band was again seated and called to attention. This piece, again, was noticeably from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series. The general theme was particularly distinguishable from the rest of the suite. Many of the performers kept time with the conductor by tapping their black shoes softly on the stage floor. When on a rest, they kept a careful eye on Shuler, intent on keeping time.
In preparation for the last song, Shuler gave an in-depth description of the history and his reasoning for the selection of a song so different in sound from the rest. “Midway March,” by John Williams, arranged by John Moss, sounded significantly more classical compared to the previous three pieces. While it was not as familiar as the others, the players still seemed to be comfortable. The notes were still crisp and in tune.
At the end of the performance, Shuler thanked the audience for their participation in the first concert of the year. As the wind symphony exited the stage, the audience sent them away with applause and a few cheers and whistles.