5/18/2004

Contact: K.E. Schwab  -- 724-738-2199;  e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu

MUSICIANS' CONCERT BAND TO PRESENT FOUR SUMMER CONCERTS AT SRU

             SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Musicians’ Concert Band, the 100-member community band directed by Blasé Scarnati, returns to Slippery Rock University’s Miller Auditorium for four summer concerts beginning June 18.

          Scarnati, a professor emeriti of music at SRU, served as the university’s director of bands. Tickets are $2 at the door.

          Using the theme “Nothing Tugs at Your Heartstrings Like Music,” the 8 p.m. summer schedule is as follows:

•      June 18 – “That’s Entertainment,” with the concert sponsored by SRU and the SRU Alumni Association as part of the university’s Alumni Weekend events. The concert will include Warren Barker’s arrangement of “That’s Entertainment,” along with “Funiculi, Funicula,” “The Woodwind Polka,” James Christensen’s arrangement of “Best of Broadway” as well as Henry Mancini’s “Mancini Music” and Harold Arlen’s “The Wizard of Oz.”

•      July 8 – “Hooked on Jazz” will include a performance by the Musician’s Concert Band Jazz Ensemble, directed by Royce Hetrick. The band will feature Barker’s arrangement of “In the Miller Mood” along with “Dizzy Fingers,” “Jamaican Rumba,” Sammy Nestico’s arrangement of “My Kind of Town” and “Tribute to the Count,” along with Andrew Glover’s arrangement of “Festive Dance from Faust” and W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues.”

•      July 22 – “Side by Side II” featuring band members joined by family members who are also musicians in a concert sponsored by First National Bank of Slippery Rock. The concert will include “Brule River Celebration,” “God Shed His Grace on Thee,” “Alamo March,” “Precious Lord, Lead Me Home,” “Sunflower Saga,” “Flight of Valor,” “Our Director March” and other works.

•      Aug. 5 – “Give My Regards…” will offer “Where Eagles Soar,” “Inversia,” “On an American Spiritual,” “Bombasto March,” “River of Life,” “March Grandioso,” “West Side Story,” “Kentucky Sunrise,” “Emblem of Freedom,” “Broadway One-Step” and “Selections from Chicago.”

          The band, formed in 1986 and now a nonprofit organization, provides an outlet for those who studied a musical instrument in high school or college. Its members come from varied backgrounds, some music teachers other in occupations far removed from music. Michael C. Formeck serves as assistant conductor.

          The band’s traditional holiday concert is titled “Light Up the Season” and is set for 4 p.m. Dec. 5 in Miller.

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