Cottonwood News – The Cottonwood Community Band, under the direction of Jeff Bowell, is pleased to announce their spring concert to be held on Sunday, May 1, at 3:00 PM at the Phillip England Center for the Performing Arts in Camp Verde. The concert is presented free of charge.
For a community band in a rather small community, we have been blessed with a remarkable wealth of talent and this concert will feature original compositions from three members of the band, among other selections.
The band’s elder statesman, Paul Rosenfeld, who is now 90 and still active in the band composed a march titled “The Bells of Freedom” way back in 1956, and it features a trio of musicians playing glockenspiels. Former band conductor Julie Lacksonen (formerly Smith) composed a selection she titled “Jest So” and dedicated it to a former band mate who possessed an offbeat sense of humor and passed away in 2004. And the late, great David Baptist, who was a band stalwart until passing away in 2018 composed a selection called “The Voyage of the Black Diamond”, which has never before been performed.
In addition to the home grown talent, we will feature the obligatory Sousa march, a toccata, the dramatic music from the film Lawrence of Arabia, a couple of fun medlies featuring the music of Henry Mancini and Hoagy Carmichael, and other well known and instantly recognizable pieces.
The band originally rehearsed for and planned to hold a March concert but Covid forced us to cancel that plan, and so what we have in store for you at this concert is a combination of the best pieces from the original two concert programs we had planned. A sort of greatest hits, if you will. We hope you can make time in your busy schedule to come and listen to your community band play some very entertaining music!