Southwestern Ohio Symphonic Band to present its spring concert at MUM

“Carmina Burana is a personal favorite of mine, and I’ve been waiting a long time to direct these excerpts and the band arrangement,” he said.

The Southwestern Ohio Symphonic Band (SOSB) will present its annual spring concert, “Journey in Darkness and Light” at 2:30 p.m. March 3 at MUM’s Dave Finkelman Auditorium. The concert is free and open to the public.

Nichols said each of the pieces with the exception of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and “The Washington Post March” reflect on the theme “Journey in Darkness and Light” because they all have elements of darkness and light.

Some of them are figurative, and others have to do with the actual story of the music, he said.

“For example, with ‘Carnaval!’ Julie Giroux put together a depiction of a Latin Street Carnaval. There’s a lot of energy in the tune, and bright lights as well as costumes that reflect light, and things like that, so that’s part of the light theme,” Nichols said.

The concert will begin with John Phillip Sousa’s, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” arranged by Walter Damrosch and edited by Keith Brion, followed by two pieces from Giroux, “Carnaval!” and “Journey Through Orion.”

The first half of the concert will conclude with a veterans tribute and the recognition of service members in attendance as the band plays “The Washington Post March” by John Philip Sousa, arranged by Keith Brion and Loras Schissel.

“We do one piece, usually a march of some kind to pay tribute to veterans in the audience as well as to those in the band,” said Nichols. “This is a fairly new version of ‘The Washington Post March.’ We purchased the piece this year as a veterans tribute. So, hopefully, the veterans will enjoy hearing this particular march that everybody will recognize,” said Nichols.

Following intermission, the band will continue with “Excerpts” from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff; Suite for Concert Band arranged by John Krance.

“Carmina Burana is probably one of the best, massive choral works of the 20th Century. It was completed around 1935-1936. The band arrangement has 13 movements, and we are going to play a very good sampling of that. These are very colorful pieces,” Nichols said.

The band will close the concert with selections from “Wicked,” including “No One Mourns the Wicked,” “Dancing Through Life,” “No Good Deed,” “For Good,” and “Defying Gravity,” with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, arranged by Jay Bocook.

He said,people are going to know these tunes from the Broadway show.

“This is our middle concert. We do three concerts each season at Dave Finkelman Auditorium. Our holiday concert was successful with well over 500 people in the audience, and we are hoping we can draw that same kind of crowd for this concert,” Nichols said

How to go Southwestern Ohio Symphonic Band presents its spring concert, “Journey in Darkness and Light”

When: March 3 at 2:30 p.m.

Where: Dave Finkelman Auditorium, Miami University Middletown, 4200 N. University Blvd.

Cost: Free and open to the public.

More information: sosband.org