Programme Notes WARDLE YOUTH BAND
WIG AN YOUTH JAZZ
Musical Director: Rom Stanko Star Wars John Williams arr. Ray Farr Music of McCartney arr. Warren Barker The Abbey (from Suite: Margam Stones) Gareth Wood Wardle village is situated at the foot of the Lancashire Pennines in the Metropolitan District of Rochdale. In this village stands Wardle High School where all the present youth band players have had five years grounding in concerts and contests. The school failed to acquire a sixth form and the parents of these children were determined to see that the children's perseverance and talent did not go to waste. They pledged to form a youth band for all Wardle High School Band players. The present Wardle Youth Band has 58 members aged between 16 and 19. Since its inception the band has made rapid progress in both the concert and contest field and has quickly established a reputation for itself as one of the leading youth bands in the country. An exciting and expert concert band, they have been featured on both commercial and BBC television appearing on Yorkshire Television' s 'Brass in Concert' series and BBC's 'Brass Beat'. Star Wars - John Williams arr. Ray Farr Star Wars is an imaginative entertainment experience which takes the audience to an unknown galaxy thousands of light years from earth. The high energy adventure combines contemporary science fiction with the romantic fantasies of sword and sorcery. Here is a skilful arrangement by Ray Farr of four themes from the film. Music of McCartney - arr. Warren Barker A lively arrangement of two wellknown McCartney songs originally performed by the group Wings. The Abbey (from Suite: Margam Stones) - Gareth Wood The Abbey is a slow processional march quoting themes from the two previous movements, recalling the splendour of the past and ending in triumphal fashion. The suite was used as the test piece for the National Youth Band Championships in 1981.
ORCHESTRA Musical Director: Ian A. Darrington Gonna Fly Now Bill Conti/ (Theme from Carol Connors/ 'RockY) Ayn Robbins arr. Jay Chattaway Theme & Variations on a Hero's Return Barbara Thompson Bloom/Mercer Day In Day Out arr. Billy May The Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra is one of the senior ensembles of the School's Instrumental Music Service of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. The orchestra was formed in 1976 with its aim to offer the more advanced music students scope to broaden their musical outlook and to introduce them to the vast and challenging world of jazz and big band music. Since then all the secondary schools in the borough have been represented in the band at some time. From 1981 to 1983 the orchestra performed in the National Festival of Music for Youth, receiving a Highly Commended Performance Award in 1982 and that same year they performed in EIkhart, Indiana, USA, as part of a 12-day visit and at the Schools Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. The orchestra's first English tour came in the summer of 1983 while the following summer they participated in the Aberdeen International Youth Festival. 1985 began with a series of concerts with world famous soloists at the Wigan Pier and in July the orchestra visited Hong Kong and Aberdeen to take part in the Youth Arts Festivals. At the 1985 National Festival of Music for Youth the orchestra was awarded one of two Outstanding Performance Awards. Gonna Fly Now (Theme from 'RockY) - Bill Conti/Carol Connors/Ayn Robbins arr. Jay Chattaway This was recorded recently by the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra. Theme & Variations on a Hero's Return - Barbara Thompson This is part of a new suite specially written and arranged for jazz orchestra featuring Barbara Thompson on soprano saxophone.
Bloom/Mercer arr. Billy May This is one of the most popular pieces recorded by Frank Sinatra and the Billy May Orchestra. Day In Day Out -
WOKING CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Conductor: Robert Ault Pulcinella Suite (movs) Igor Stravinsky The Woking Chamber Orchestra was formed by its 17-year-old conductor, Robert Ault, in January of this year, drawing on players in and around the western half of Surrey.
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The orchestra gave its first concert on 27th March and has since given two others, in May and earlier this month. The orchestra's repertoire extends .from works by Bach, Haydn and Mozart to those of Stravinsky, Ravel and Ibert. Robert Ault, the conductor, is first clarinettist with the Surrey County Youth Orchestra and Guildhall School of Music and Drama Symphony Orchestra (where he studies on Saturdays) and is the leader of the Surrey County Wind Orchestra. During the week he studies at Woking College and hopes to continue his studies in clarinet and conducting at music college in 1986. Pulcinella Suite (movs) - IgOT Stravinsky In 1919 Stravinsky was invited by Diaghilev to write a ballet using as a basis the music of Pergolesi, the eighteenth-century Italian composer. Stravinsky seized upon the idea and produced a ballet in one act scored for soprano, tenor and bass soloists and orchestra. He adapted a concert suite from the ballet score (omitting the solo voices) and it was first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Monteux in 1922. The balance of Pergolesi's music is upset by Stravinsky's alterations to rhythm and harmony and by his scoring for a chamber orchestra in which winds and a solo string quintet are prominent. Pulcinel1a marks the beginning of Stravinsky's controversial style of neoclassical writing, which produced other great works like the piano and violin concertos, the opera The Rake' s Progress' and the 'Dumbarton Oaks' Concerto.
WOLVERHAMPTON CONCERT BAND Conductor: CoUn Douglas Fanfare and TrevoT L. Sharpe National Anthem Milhaud lie de France Rapscallion; Scherzo for James Barnes Symphonic Band Wolverhampton Concert Band is made up of 50 players between the ages of 12 and 21, drawn from Wolverhampton schools and Colleges of Further Education. The band gives concerts over a wide area of the West Midlands, playing music ranging in style from pop to original wind band compositions. Some recent p erformances have been at Magdalen College, Oxford, Cosford Air Show and Shrewsbury International Music Festival. He de France - Milhaud Ile de France is the short central movement of Suite Fran~aise, an original composition for band. RapscalliQn; Scherzo for Symphonic Band - James Barnes This is a more extended work, also originally written for wind band, in which the music ranges from the biting sarcasm of Shostakovich to the exotic languor of Debussy.