June 19, 2016

KIND BAND HIGHLIGHTS FATHER'S DAY:

     Conductor Jimmerson programmed a wide variety of music to appeal to all musical tastes during this special Father’s Day presentation.  The concert opened with two of Karl King’s many march-style compositions, “Neddermeyer Triumphal” and “Howdy Pap”.   Also on the program was E.E. Bagley’s tribute to George Washington, “Father of His Country”.

The evening’s classical offering was the overture to the opera, Egmont, by the German composer Ludwig von Beethoven.   This opera premiered in June 1810, and included a series of incidental pieces based by a 1787 play by Goethe.   The subject of the music and dramatic narrative is the life and heroism of a 16th-century Dutch nobleman, the Count of Egmont, and it was composed during the period of the Napoleonic Wars.

Special guest soloists for the evening were Robert Patton, baritone, from Gowrie and Edwin Griffith, tenor, from Des Moines.   Mr. Patton and Mr. Griffith performed two duets with the King Band.    The first was “Au fond du Temple Saint” from French composer Georges Bizet’s 1863 opera, The Pearl Fishers, followed by highlights from the popular Broadway musical, “Man of La Mancha.”

Mr. Patton attended the University of Northern Iowa before joining the U.S. Air Force Singing Sergeants in Washington, D.C. During his twenty years in the military, Patton soloed with the National Symphony and the Boston and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras.   He also performed with the Washington Civic, Baltimore, Wolf Trap, Northern Virginia and Annapolis opera companies.   In 1991 he returned to Gowrie IA and became editor and publisher of The Gowrie News, the fourth generation owner of a 110 year-old family business.  Now retired, he is in demand as a vocalist throughout the Midwest.

Mr. Griffith graduated from Simpson College in Indianola IA, and has performed throughout the United States.  He has performed leading roles with opera companies and symphony orchestras in Nashville, the Bronx, Sarasota, Natchez, Delaware, Lancaster, and West Jersey among many others.  Since returning to Iowa, he has sung leading roles with the Des Moines Metro Opera and the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, along with numerous other choral groups in the central Iowa area.

Other selections included a rhumba, “Relax”, a ragtime novelty selection, “Teddy Trombone”, along with a medley of “Big Band Favorites”, which includes “I’m Getting’ Sentimental Over You”, “Here’s That Rainy Day”, Benny Goodman’s “Stompin’ at the Savoy”, Glenn Miller’s famous “In The Mood”, and Woody Herman’s “Woodchopper’s Ball”.