THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507040100
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Summer brings warm weather, fun in the sun and vacations. For Chesapeake and the rest of South Hampton Roads, it also brings winds - not the cooling kind but those of a tuneful variety.
When you hear the traditional concert opener of James Hosay's ``High Tide,'' you know the Tidewater Winds have again blown into Chesapeake for another summer of crowd-pleasing music.
Under the direction of its founder, musical director and conductor Sidney Berg, the Winds will once again perform its mix of rousing marches, stirring patriotic songs, melodious Broadway favorites and classical war horses in Great Bridge and Western Branch.
Chesapeake Tidewater Winds concerts are being presented thanks to support from the Chesapeake Fine Arts Commission and the Recording Industries Music Performance Trust Funds, Local 128 of the American Federation of Musicians.
It has already performed a patriotic concert, ``Music of America,'' last Monday at Great Bridge High School and will reprise that program tonight in Western Branch at the Western Branch Middle School, 4201 Hawksley Drive, at 7:30 p.m.
Featuring the patriotic marches of John Philip Sousa, including ``Glory of the Yankee Navy,'' tonight's program will include music by Edwin Franko Goldman; two works by Ferde Grofe, ``Mardi Gras'' from his ``Mississippi Suite'' and ``On the Trail'' from his world famous ``Grand Canyon Suite''; world war songs by Irving Berlin; Scott Joplin's ``Maple Leaf Rag''; musical highlights from ``That's Entertainment''; and a medley of Armed Forces songs.
The free concert will include trumpet soloist Stephen Carlson, principal trumpet player of the Virginia Symphony, who will be featured in Walter Rogers' ``Land of the Free.''
``People really love those solos, it gets the crowd up,'' Berg said from his Norfolk home. ``The pyrotechnics of our soloists are really appreciated by our audiences.''
If you failed to attend the Monday concert or can't make it to tonight's Western Branch show, the Winds will again blow into town next week for two more concerts in Chesapeake.
Called ``Marching Along,'' next week's musical program is obvious from the title, an array of compositions guaranteed to stir marching rhythms in even the most sedentary person.
``The `Marching Along' program will be especially interesting,'' Berg explained. ``I've tried to show how varied a program you can do on just marches. The opening number, a military march by Saint-Saens, is more a classical piece than anything else. And our closing number will be Tchaikovsky's `Marche Slav.' That one's a real barnburner. People like that one as much as the `1812 Overture.' ''
Rounding out the program will be Sousa's ``Solid Men to the Front,'' Codina's ``Zacatecas,'' Bogdan Trotsek's ``Hooray for the Clowns,'' Offenbach's ``Overture to the Drum Major's Daughter,'' a big band spectacular arranged by Bob Lowden.
The featured soloist will be Patti Watters who will play the piccolo on Adolph Damm's ``Through the Air.''
The program takes place on Monday at the Great Bridge High School auditorium, 301 W. Hanbury Road, and again on July 14, at Western Branch Middle School. Both concerts begin at 7:30 p.m.
Other programs include ``The Music of Broadway,'' at Great Bridge on July 17; ``Concert Favorites,'' at Great Bridge on July 24 and at Western Branch on July 28; and ``A Broadway Spectacular,'' at Great Bridge on July 31.
The regional professional concert band is made up of music professionals from all types of local music performance and education including various military bands and orchestras, high schools, colleges and other noted regional orchestras.
Berg said this summer marks the Winds' 10th anniversary of Chesapeake performances and its 11th year performing overall.
The Tidewater Winds, noted for performing ``concerts in the Sousa band tradition,'' have been favorites in Hampton Roads. But Berg noted, it has always had a warm spot for Chesapeake.
``They have wonderful venues in Chesapeake,'' Berg noted. ``Our Monday concerts at Great Bridge do very well, we usually get upwards of 800 people in the audience. Week after week we see the same people come back and they bring other people with them who also become longtime fans. That shows us we're doing the right thing.'' MEMO: All Tidewater Winds concerts are free. More information about the
Tidewater Winds or its concerts is available by calling 464-3799.
by CNB