Schoharie Valley Concert Band Fall ConcertSunday, October 20th at 3PM
Conductor Samantha Baldwin has scheduled the Schoharie Valley Concert Band (SVCB) Fall Concert for Sunday, October 20th at 3PM in the Cobleskill-Richmondville High School Auditorium and selected music from several genres to appeal to the audience. Students will be admitted free and the performance is open to the general public.
Diane Baltazar will be the featured English horn soloist performing French composer Claude Debussy’s evocative piece, ”The Girl with the Flaxen Hair”
Diane graduated from The College of Saint Rose with a BS and MS in Music Education. She is a retired music teacher from Averill Park CSD where she taught general music, grade 6 chorus, grade 6-8 instrumental and band. She is the organist and Director of Music at The Church of Saint Adalbert in Schenectady, New York.
Diane Balthazar
As a composer and arranger, Diane has won competitions including first place in the Eastern Chapter of the American Guild of Organists competition for new works for oboe and organ and first prize at a local college with an original composition for choral, brass and organ.
Many of her compositions include concert band and have been performed in local bands including the Schoharie Valley Concert Band. They include, “Air on Brother James,” “Prelude on Amazing Grace,” “The Johnstown Centennial March,” “Governor Bouck’s Quick Step,” “The Sharon Polka” “Cymbala”(band and handbells), “All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth,” “The December Rose,” “A Reel Good Life!” and “Merry Maritime March.”
Diane is an active oboist/English horn performer with area groups and ensembles. She is a member of the International Double Reed Society, American Federation of Musicians and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Diane and her husband, Ray, live in Rotterdam, NY.
“Amparito Roca” is a well-known Spanish military march named after composer James Texidor’s 12-year-old female piano student Amparito Roca.
In Randall Standridge’s “The Witching Hour” the clock tower church bells toll on each quarter hour ushering in a new eerie and macabre melody to cast four different musical spells on the audience.
“Prairie Dances” by David Solinger is a musical portrait of the cattle regions of Texas complete with rambunctious rhythms of cowboy towns and wide-open plains.
“Down by the Salley Gardens” is Michael Sweeney’s arrangement of an Irish folk melody based on William B. Yates original Irish poem which remembers a lost love.
“Songs of Old Kentucky” by Brant Karrick includes music ranging from traditional Kentucky ballads to barn dance folk songs.
“Duke Ellington Medley for Band” arranged by Caitlin Custer includes melodies from “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”, “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me”, “Sophisticated Lady” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)”.
Michael Jackson’s Halloween classic, “Thriller” is the best-selling song of all time. Song lyrics for “Thriller” start out “It’s close to midnight, and something evil’s lurking in the dark, under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart” etc.
The Schoharie Valley Concert Band is open to all area residents including high school and college students. Rehearsals are held on Thursday evenings from 7-9:15 PM. in the Cobleskill-Richmondville HS band room. Rehearsals for the December 10th 7PM Holiday Concert will begin on October 24th. For information on how to join the band, please contact Conductor Samantha Baldwin at svcbconductor@gmail.com.