Yolo Community Band invites you to travel along on a musical journey at an “Out of this World” concert on Wednesday evening May 25 featuring John Williams’ “Star Wars Trilogy” (Arr. Donald Hunsberger) paired with “Mars, The Bringer of War” from The Planets by Gustav Holst (Arr. Geert Schrijvers). This family-friendly free live concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. outdoors on the grounds of the Gibson House, 512 Gibson St in Woodland. Donations to help cover the cost of music will be gratefully accepted at the concert. If you come early from 6:45-7:15 p.m., you will be able to observe the band in action at a final rehearsal. Audience members are invited to bring folding chairs or blankets to sit on the beautiful grounds under the trees or in the parking lot in front of the portico at Gibson House where the band will perform. Concert goers are requested to park off site so that the small parking area can be used for seating.
Bobby Rogers, music director of the group and chair of the music department at Pioneer High School in Woodland, explained that “I programmed these two well-known compositions together to highlight the thematic similarities used by the two composers to bring drama and forceful momentum to the music.” The Planets is a seven movement orchestral suite composed by Gustav Holst between 1914 and 1917. The powerful Mars movement is a listener favorite. The driving bass line captures the feeling of menace that is also at the heart of John Williams’ Star Wars theme for Darth Vader, in The Imperial March.
Yolo Community Band, originally known as Woodland Community Band, was started by Rogers in 2005 as a service project to the community. Musicians range in age from high school to retirees, including amateur and professional musicians that are drawn from all parts of Yolo County as well as the surrounding region. The 50-60 member group provides music for local community events such as the Woodland Veterans Day ceremony, the Yolo County Fair, summer concerts in community parks in Woodland and Winters as well as partnering for concerts with other regional concert bands such as the UC Davis Concert Band, and community bands in Sacramento and Solano County. The band participates in Northern California community band festivals and in 2017 traveled to New York to perform in Carnegie Hall at the Sounds of Summer International Music Festival. Plans for a performance tour in Italy in 2020 were put on hold by the pandemic. The band is a sponsored project of YoloArts, the current manager of the Gibson House property.
The band welcomes new members throughout the year for all brass, woodwind and percussion instruments. For more information about the concert or joining the group, contact yolocommunityband@gmail.com or follow the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/YoloCommunityBand. Donations to support band activities can be made at https://yoloarts.org/give/#give by specifying Yolo Community Band in the comments box.