Extra Credit Opportunity

The Gainesville Community Band is having a concert. If your child would like to have extra credit, please do a 1 page concert review of the performance. Please email Mr. Thomas for more details.

What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!  It’s the . . .

Gainesville Community Band’s annual

Sunday at the Pops Concert

●Please join us on Sunday, February 24, 2 p.m., at

●Santa Fe College Fine Arts Hall Auditorium, 3000 NW 83rd Street (plenty of free parking!).

●Featured artist:  Bill Prince, master of all instruments, playing big band favorites

●Mark your calendar!

GCB’s Sunday at the Pops Concert is a favorite of North Central Florida.  Tickets at the Door, Suggested Donation--$5-$10 per person or $10-$20 per family.

This is what you’ll hear! 

Strike Up the Band			George Gershwin Arranged by Warren Barker
Salute to Ol’ Blue Eyes      Songs Sinatra sang, including: Cole Porter, I’ve Got You Under My Skin Bert Kaempfert, Strangers in the Night Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon, That’s Life Richard Rodgers, The Lady Is A Tramp			Arranged by John Moss
Big Band Signatures      Including the big band sounds of Benny Goodman’s Let’s Dance Les Brown’s Leap Frog Woody Herman’s Woodchopper’s Ball Stan Kenton’s The Peanut Vendor Count Basie’s April In Paris Duke Ellington’s Caravan Glenn Miller’s In The Mood			Arranged by John Higgins
The following selections will feature guest artist Bill Prince
Trumpet Samba			Bill Prince
What A Wonderful World			Bob Thiele & George David Weiss Arranged by Bill Prince
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans			John Turner Layton, Jr. and Henry Creamer Arranged by Bill Prince
Stranger on the Shore	Jack Kitts -Turner, Bassoon		Acker Bilk Arranged by Bill Prince
Tijuana Brass Medley      Including What Now My Love, So What’s New, Spanish Flea, Tijuana Taxi			Herb Alpert Arranged by Bill Prince
Yesterday I Heard the Rain			Armando Manzanero Arranged by William Prince
Benny’s From Heaven			Parody on “Pennies From Heaven” by Arthur Johnston & Johnny Burke Arranged by Bill Prince
Concertino for Jazz and Legit Clarinets	Bess de Farber, Clarinet		Bill Prince
Saints			Arranged by William Prince

These are the folks who will perform:

Bill Prince: 

Bill’s spectacularly successful concert with the Gainesville Community Band in past years generated numerous audience requests to “Bring him back!”  So here he is.  While most musicians focus on just one instrument, Bill performs professionally on trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, flute, clarinet, saxophone, piano and string bass.  The list of groups with which he played reads like a Who’s Who of Big Bands--Buddy Rich, Billy Maxted, Xavier Cugat, Ray Anthony, Tex Beneke, Les Elgart, Larry Elgart, Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Les Brown, Pee Wee Hunt, Louis Bellson, and the NORAD Band.  He performed with the Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Jacksonville Symphonies and the American Wind Orchestra.  He has played on more than 50 albums and in every state in the union, Canada, the Far East, Western and Eastern Europe, South Africa, and Central and South America.  Dr. Prince, professor emeritus of music at University of North Florida, is also a noted composer and arranger and has received awards for teaching.  He directed student groups that twice won major national jazz competitions.

Jack Kitts-Turner

Jack played nine years as bassoonist in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra before joining the University of Florida music faculty in 1966.  In addition to serving as Professor of Bassoon, Jack also played with the UF Woodwind Quintet, was a founding member of the Gainesville Chamber Orchestra and performed with other orchestras throughout Florida.  He established UF’s Early Music program and, after his 2000 retirement from the university, created the Musica Vera Consort, an ensemble that performs Renaissance and Baroque music in costume and using reproductions of period instruments.  Jack is principal bassoonist of the Gainesville Community Band.

Bess de Farber:

Bess studied performance at the University of Southern California, where she was named the most outstanding clarinet graduate.  She has performed extensively throughout Florida, both in person and on television.  In 1996 she was commissioned to create Composing A Heart, a multimedia piece tracing her parents’ emigration to the U.S.  This work has been performed on NPR and at such South Florida venues as the Caldwell Theatre, and the Jewish Museum of Florida.  Ms. de Farber has also served on grant review panels for the Florida Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts and, for ten years, played bagpipe in the City of Dunedin Pipe Band.

Gerald Poe:

is music director of the Gainesville Community Band.  Dr. Poe earned the B.A. degree from Western State College in Colorado, M.M. Ed. from Florida State University and D.M.A. from the University of Colorado. Much in demand as clinician, conductor and performer, Dr. Poe is listed in Who’s Who in American Music, Who’s Who in American Universities and most recently in the 2004 edition of Marquis’s Who’s Who in America. Dr. Poe is active in Florida Music Educators, Music Educators National Conference, Florida Bandmasters Association, and the Association of Concert Bands.

Gainesville Community Band:

Founded in 1974, the GCB has some 80 members, including teachers, professors, scientists, business professionals, students, physicians, contractors, realtors, tradespersons, and retirees. In 1978, the Gainesville City Commission passed a resolution designating GCB as the Official Community Band of Gainesville.  All-volunteer and non-profit, GCB is funded by a diverse group of patrons and sponsors.

For further information on the Gainesville Community Band, see our web site at www.gnvband.org.  Or, contact us at Gainesville Community Band, 2321-A2 NW 41st Street, Gainesville, FL 32606.

First of the year

We are back! The first of the year has gotten off to an excellent start. I have had the pleasure of going to the Florida Music Educators Association state convention in Tampa the first week of January. I learned quite a few things that I am anxious to teach with the students. I am looking forward to team teaching with Mr. E to be able to do a laser light show in music. It's a lesson about sound waves.

I am also pleased to announce that I a music intern for the next 6 weeks or so from the University of Florida. Please welcome Mr. Polatsek.


Just to give you a quick overview of what the grade levels have been doing:

5th: We have learned how to play the 3rd string on guitar. The notes are G and A

4th: We are learning how to play the CDE white keys along with the black keys

3rd: We are learning how to play the C note on recorder and incorporate it with the rest of the notes we have learned so far.

K-2: We are still focusing on rhythm but we are learning a variety of songs that correspond to the rhythms we have learned so far. We have also begun incorporating the Orff instruments and other hand percussion.