December may be the one month of the year most associated with music, and every December, the Mesilla Valley Concert Band delivers with a concert of wide-ranging music for symphonic wind band. This time, the program includes the “Fantasia in G,” by Bach, a work originally written for organ, and which conductor William Clark calls the centerpiece of the concert. “It’s a long piece and there’s not one measure that doesn’t have movement on every beat – until the end. And the energy is unbelievable. I told the band – in my view, if you look up ‘music’ in the dictionary, it should say ‘Fantasia in G’ by Bach.”
Clark came to talk with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin about the program and the three other conductors who will take turns leading the ensemble: John Schutz, Jim Young, and Rose Verlinde. Another feature is a new march by David Beasley, a local attorney and composer who has written several works for MVCB and other ensembles in the country. The work, “The Omaha World-Herald March,” pays tribute to Omaha’s newspaper, and “just like everything else he’s written, it’s just terrific,” Clark said. Alfred Reed’s popular “Russian Christmas Music” will be on the program, along with some jazz tunes performed by the Mesilla Valley Jazz Orchestra, and some holiday pieces.
The concert is Sunday, Dec. 15 at 3 p.m. at the Atkinson Recital Hall. This interview begins just after we listened to “The Eighth Candle,” by Steve Reisteter, which is also on the program. The interview aired on Dec. 5, 2019.
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