Band leaders take the stage
The American Band College Directors Band is getting ready to present its 20th Annual Ginger Rogers Craterian concert.
The music begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater, 23 S. Central Ave., Medford.
This year's concert is dedicated to two long-time influential band directors, Al and Gladys Wright, who will each conduct one piece during the evening.
Principle guest conductors are Ralph Hultgren, professor at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in Australia, and Bruce Dinkins, a 30-year concert band director.
Soloist is trumpeter Allen Vizzutti, who has performed with Chick Corea, Doc Severinsen, the NBC Tonight Show Band, the Airmen of Note, the Army Blues, Chuck Mangoine, Woody Herman and others.
There will be two American Band College Directors Bands, each consisting of more than 100 high school, middle school and college band directors who are earning their master's degrees through the ABC three-year program.
Although most work is done independently, for two weeks in June and July, participants come to Southern Oregon University to study under the world's foremost performers and conductors.
The first week culminates in the Craterian concert. The second week culminates in the July 4th fireworks concert at the Ashland High School football stadium.
Al and Gladys Wright have spent more than 100 years teaching high school and college students band music. Gladys Wright was the first woman to be inducted into the National Band Conductors Hall of Fame for Distinguished Conductors. Her other awards include being the first woman elected to the American Bandmasters Association, the first woman to receive membership in the bandmasters fraternity Phi Beta Mu, the National Band Associations Citation of Excellence and the John Phillip Sousa Foundations Sudler Order Gold Medal.
Al Wright was director of the Miami Senior High School Bands from 1938 to 1954, when he accepted the position of director of bands at Purdue University. In 1954, he helped found the American School Band Directors Association and, in 1961, he founded the National Band Association. In 1978, he helped Colonel George Howard develop the John Philip Sousa Foundation and has served as its President, CEO and Chairman of the Board. Al Wright will be celebrating his 92nd birthday by conducting a Henry Fillmore march during the concert.
Performing as a classical and jazz artist, Vizzutti has appeared internationally as a guest soloist with symphony orchestras.
As artist-in-residence, Vizzutti has taught at a number of universities. "The Allen Vizzutti Trumpet Method" published by Alfred Music has become a standard work for trumpet study worldwide. Vizzutti will be featured in his own composition, "American Jazz Suite," the traditional "Carnival of Venice" and "Ode for Trumpet" (second movement) by Alfred Reed.
Guest conductor Hultgren began his music career as a trumpet player in 1970 and has performed with several bands and as a freelance musician for theater, opera, cabaret and recording studios. Hutgrens has extensive conducting credits. He is a founding member of the Australian Band and Orchestra Directors' Association. In 1998 he became the recipient of the Citation of Excellence, the Australian Band & Orchestra Directors' Association's highest honor. Hultgren will be conducting "Listen!" and "Joshua," two of his newer compositions.
Since 2001, guest conductor Dinkins has been the band director at James Bowie High School in Austin, Texas, leading the band to winning several awards. He is the only four-time recipient of the honor band award for the National Adjudicators Invitational Festivals. Dinkins has performed and conducted extensively. He will be conducting some standards of band repertoire including "Tulsa: A Symphonic Poem in Oil" and "Incantation and Dance." He also will introduce a new composition entitled "Dancing at Stonehenge."
Tickets are $16 for adults, $12 for seniors 62 and up and $7 for children under 12.
Tickets are available at Cripple Creek Music in Ashland, bandworld.org or through the Craterian box office at 779-3000.
