UW-S hosts Sheboygan Pops spring concert May 2

As it begins its third decade of providing musical entertainment in Sheboygan County, the Sheboygan Pops Concert Band will present a Spring Concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 2, at the University Theatre in the Fine Arts Building, University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan.

The band, founded in 1989 and under the direction of Neil Mahnke, will present a varied program that will also include musical selections featuring soloists and several smaller ensembles from the band.

There is no admission charge for the concert, but freewill offerings will be accepted.

After opening the concert with “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the band will present Robert Sheldon’s melodic sound poem “A Bayside Portrait.” In addition to being a very prolific composer, Sheldon is widely known as a guest conductor and clinician.

A trio of members of the French horn section – Richard Henckel, Allan Brusse, and Alan Schefsky – will be featured in “Horns A-Hunting,” a piece composed by Gunther Brehm and edited by Erik Leidzen.

“Fidgety Feet,” a toe-tapper composed in 1918 and attributed to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, which was headed by cornetist Nick LaRocca, will be performed next.

The 1978 musical Evita, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, brings to life the dynamic persona of Eva Peron, wife of Argentina’s President Juan Peron. “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” is one of the best-known songs from this musical and the pops band’s rendition will feature a flugelhorn solo by William Hughes.

Selections from another musical, West Side Story, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, will complete the first half of the concert. Originally produced on Broadway in 1957, this timeless musical enjoyed a revival in 2009 and currently continues at Broadway’s Palace Theatre.

Intermission performers will be two smaller ensembles within the Sheboygan Pops Concert Band. First, members of the Jazz Ensemble will perform a “Blues Brothers Revue.” That will be followed by “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and “Suddenly It’s Swing.” Next, members of the clarinet section will perform a clarinet choir arrangement of “The Marriage of Figaro.”

The second half of the concert will open with the “Florentiner March” under the direction of Associate Conductor Allan Brusse. This piece, by Czech composer Julius Fucik, was composed as a grand march for an opera that was never completed. Although it isn't as popular as “Entrance of the Gladiators,” Fucik’s most popular piece, it is regularly performed and recorded by wind ensembles.

This will be followed by two movements of “First Suite in E flat for Military Band,” by Gustav Holst, one of the leading English composers of the 20th century.

Numerous versions of the hymn “How Great Thou Art” have been published and the pops band will feature one by Stuart K. Hine that has been arranged by Ralph Herman. A vocal solo will be performed by Randall Styx, a member of the Sheboygan Pops Concert Band. In addition to playing contra-alto clarinet with the band, Styx arranges music and plays several other musical instruments.

David Schanke’s “Latin Reeds,” a unique woodwind selection, will follow. This piece features Jane Halverson (clarinet), Catherine Conely-Mink and Curt Hancock (alto saxaphones) as well as the father/daughter duo of Mike and Melissa Mallow (tenor saxophones).

The concert will conclude with a Jerry Nowak arrangement of “Sinatra in Concert.” This medley of songs made famous by Frank Sinatra, considered by many to be the greatest singer in American pop history, includes the theme from New York, New York; “It Was a Very Good Year”; “The Lady is a Tramp”; and “My Way”