Make a Joyful Noise!

Sun March 10, 3:00 PM
Galvin Middle School Auditorium
525 Main St • Wakefield MA

Ticket prices:
$15 adult • $12 seniors/students
children under 12 free

The Middlesex Concert Band performance “Make A Joyful Noise” will be presented at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 10, in Wakefield’s state-of-the-art auditorium in the Galvin Middle School, 525 Main St., Wakefield.

Doors open at 2:30 p.m. There will be free refreshments during intermission and a 50/50 raffle fundraiser. In addition to the grand prize, several other winners will take home gift cards from sponsors.

“Cartoon,” by Paul Hart, will have classic cartoon themes spun together in this medley. The audience will recognize big opening credits, a cat and mouse tease and chase, a strutting swagger, and a big finale. Another of the zanier pieces in the lineup is “Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion,” by P.D.Q. Bach and arranged by Peter Schickele; one of the movements in this selection is largely played on mouthpieces detached from the instruments. Also in the wacky genre for this show will be “LOL (Laugh Out Loud),” by Robert Buckley, where the musicians will get to show off glissandi and other dizzying runs reminiscent of a circus march. “A Salute to Spike Jones,” arranged by Calvin Custer, samples just about every bell, whistle and horn in the percussion toy box.

Another group of pieces in this concert will highlight dance music, like Bedrich Smetana’s “Polka” from “The Bartered Bride,” an opera that celebrates Bohemian peasant life. This concert band arrangement by Gary Parks aims to reanimate the whirling and brightly clad dancers. “Pavanne,” one of Morton Gould’s most often performed and recorded works, is a jazzy movement from his “American Symphonette No. 2,” which was originally written for radio performance. “Dixieland Jam!” is another toe-tapping medley of well-known favorites arranged by Robert Lowden.