From BOWLING GREEN AREA COMMUNITY BANDS
The Bowling Green Area Community Band opens its season 18 with “Comics and Cartoons!” This free concert will take place Sunday Oct. 25th at 4 p.m. at The Bowling Green Performing Arts Center, 503 West Poe Road. Doors open at 3:30 pm. Audience members can enjoy a fun pre-concert performance by the Saxty 4 saxophone quartet.
Conductor Catherine Lewis will begin the concert by directing the band through “The Star Spangled Banner. “
This program will delight youngsters and the young of heart as the band opens with the John Williams’ medley “Superman.” This score was written by Williams for the 1978 Superman movie with Christopher Reeves as the Man of Steel. This musical theme has continued to inspire the many Superman media iterations to follow.
“Tubby the Tuba,” composed by George Kleinsinger, is the title of a 1945 song with lyrics written by Paul Tripp. It tells the story of a Tuba looking for a melody to play. A cartoon was later created to accompany the music. This song will feature the band’s tuba section.
Under the direction of Bruce Corrigan, the band will next play Habanera by French composer Georges Bizet from his opera, “Carmen.” First performed more than 150 years ago, this fun and flirty song remains popular to this day and has been featured in cartoons such as “Tom and Jerry,” “The Animaniacs,” “The Muppets,” and “UP.”
The band’s next selection, “Cartoon Symphony,” includes theme songs from: “Bugs Bunny,” “The Flintstones,” “The Jetsons,” “The Simpsons,” “Pink Panther,” and “The Animaniacs.” This selection will feature a special video to accompany it.
Next up, BiG Band BG will perform some of their fun cartoon symphony collections. First up will be “Cruella De Vil “featured in Disney’s “101 Dalmatians.” Liz Dally Green will take the stage and sing along to “Cry Me a River,” written by Arthur Hamilton in 1955. This classic tune earned its place in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Finally, BiG Band BG will end their performance with “Drive Time.” This smooth jazz favorite from the 1990s was written by David Benoit and arranged by Doug Beach.
The Bowling Green Area Community Band will return to the stage with ‘Captain America’ composed by Alan Silvestri. Known as The First Avenger, the character Captain America was first introduced in comic books December 1940. This powerful march was written for the 2011 Marvel blockbuster film.
The band will then play “Golliwog’s Cakewalk.” Originally written by Debussy’ for solo piano as the last moverment of his “Children’s Corner Suite.” This song was borrowed by Disney to be featured in their cartoon “Ichabod and Mr. Toad.” The ragtime style dancing tune was arranged by David Marlatt.
The well-known “William Tell Overture (Finale)” will be the band’s next featured piece. Both Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse have borrowed this music and it continues to be repeated and parodied throughout popular media and classical music. Written in 1829 by Gioachino Rossini, this piece was included in the last of his 39 operas and is a gallop from beginning to end.
The band will play “The Great Rubber Chicken Galop” to close out the concert. Composed by Randall D. Standridge, this song was written to sound like it was being performed on a 1920s vaudeville stage. Containing equal parts serious and ridiculous, this ragtime rhythm (along with a horde of rubber chickens) is a sheer delight to experience.
Due to construction, enter from Poe Road and follow the directions to parking on the northwest side of campus.
