The 50-member New Horizons Band of Western New York will present their Spring Concert at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The free concert will be in the Harry A. King Concert Hall on the SUNY Fredonia Campus.

After opening the concert with Jack Stamp’s arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner as a “love song to the country” in a setting intended to portray the nation’s stirred patriotism following the attacks of 9/11, John Krestic will conduct Steven Reineke’s Main Street Celebration. This piece depicts the fond memories the composer had growing up in a small town just north of Dayton, Ohio. He vividly remembers playing hide-n-seek with his friends in the cornfield on the way to Friday night football games and spending lazy days lounging by the Miami River. This piece is a celebration of small town ideals that are learned on Main Streets across America.”

Music Director Dr. Kathleen L. McKay will return to the stage to conduct Communion by Carl Strommen of Long Island, NY, which includes the Irish hymn “Be Thou My Vision.” It is dedicated to the memory of two vital, enthusiastic, East Paulding (TX) Band members who generated a “coming together” of friends, band members, and community. With this performance of Communion, the New Horizons Band remembers and honors John Vona (alto saxophone, Silver Creek) and Bob Taylor (horn, Chautauqua), who passed away in 2024.  The members of the band are grateful for the years they made music and memories together.

Pauline Emilson will conduct Kentucky 1800, which is based on the tunes of three American folk songs:  The Promised Land, Cindy and I’m Sad and I’m Lonely, melodies that are reminiscent of the years the pioneers were forging westward.  The work is a band masterpiece which has become a favorite with audiences. Clare Grundman (1913-1996) was an American composer and arranger, and one of the 20th century’s most prolific and highly-respected composers. 

Composer Aaron Perrine writes that “All the Things I’m Not is a playful and affectionate nod” to the famous jazz standard, All the Things You Are. The composition utilizes and expands on the opening notes of the standard, usually sung to the lyric “Some-day . . .” using these notes as the basis for a new piece. Dr. Katherine L. McKay will conduct this piece as well as American Sketches by Pierre LaPlante. His settings of historic music draw humor and poignance from his skilled and varied use of wind band timbres. Shantyman is another name for lumberjack. The Shantyman’s Life laments the lonely winters that lumberjacks spent in the woods until the spring when they were able to travel back and forth to work. New Yorkers know The Erie Canal well, and Shoo Fly originated with African American soldiers during the Civil War.

Dr. Walter S. Hartley (1927-2016) joined the music faculty at SUNY Fredonia in 1969, where he taught music theory and composition until retirement in 1991, remaining as Professor Emeritus and composer-in-residence. Conductor Donald Keddie will lead the band with Horseheads Galop from the Southern Tier Suite that Hartley was commissioned by and dedicated to the Allegany High School Band, William Roosa, director.

The New Horizons Jazz Band of Western New York will start the second half of the program under the direction of Fredonia Student Director TyeRyan Burke. Their first selection will be When I Fall in Love with words by Edward Heyman, music by Victor Young, and arranged by Craig Skeffington. The second selection performed will be Shiny Stockings written by Frank Foster and arranged by Greg Yasinitsky. The New Horizons Jazz Band’s final selection will be Theme from Spider-Man written by Robert J. Harris and Paul Francis Webster and arranged by Roger Holmes.

The New Horizons Band of Western New York will start their second half under the direction of Dr. Katherine L. McKay, music director, leading the band with Normandy Beach written by Canadian composer John Edmondso. It is a stately British-style march inspired by the English setting.

Normandy Beach will be followed by composer and longtime band teacher Laura Estes’ Wicklow. She took inspiration from a trip to Ireland to write Wicklow, which refers to both the Wicklow Mountains and County Wicklow. The music calls for the traditional Irish Frame Drum, the Bodhrán, that is emblematic of Irish music.

Rolling Stone twice named Aretha Franklin the greatest singer of all time. New Horizons Band will play a band arrangement named The Queen of Soul (Remembering Aretha Franklin) which features three of Franklin’s greatest hits, Respect, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, and Think. The New Horizons Band will humbly recognize and strive to honor Aretha Franklin’s tremendous musical artistry and soul and Gospel styles with the performance.

The New Horizons Band Steering Committee members are: Carol Corcoran, Ellen Cornell, Karen Davis, John Krestic, Nancy Larson, Wendy Ohnmeiss, Charley Ryder, Craig Scott, and Jim Wilcox.

The New Horizons Band of Western New York provides opportunities for adults to learn to play a musical instrument and to enjoy playing with others. The band reflects the New Horizons International Music Association philosophy that music can provide challenging intellectual activity, social involvement, and the opportunity to develop one’s musical potential to the level that will be personally rewarding. 

The band will rehearse Tuesdays and Fridays from noon to 1:30 p.m. June 28 to July 23, with Music Director Katherine L. McKay on the SUNY Fredonia campus. A reasonable registration fee covers the cost of instruction and music. Visit the website: https://www.fredonia.edu/academics/colleges-schools/school-music/music/community/newhorizons and find the New Horizons Band of Western New York on Facebook.