July 8, 2012

Each week, the King Band plays several selections by the band’s namesake and 50-year conductor, Karl L. King on their hour-long concert. Those songs this week included Phillipian Festival March, a beautiful aerial waltz titled In Old Portugal, and a popular galop, Walsenburg.

Other march selections on this program were Inglesina (The Little English Girl) by Italian composer Davide Delle Cese, one of John Philip Sousa’s earlier marches, Esprit du Corps, and Brooke’s Chicago Marine Band by Roland F. Seitz.

The King Band presented Gioacchino Rossini’s overture to his opera, The Italian in Algiers, composed in 1813, along with the Pilgrim’s Chorus from the opera Tannhauser by German composer Richard Wagner, and Alfred Reed’s 1962 composition, A Festival Prelude.

Guest soloist for this evening was Dr. David Klee, principal flute and piccolo player with the King Band as well as the Assistant Conductor.  Klee is also principal flute with the Fort Dodge Area Symphony, and performs with the Comedia Musica Orchestra in Fort Dodge.

Dr. Klee is presently Associate Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Studies/Music Production & Technology at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake IA.   He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance from the University of Georgia, a Master of Music from the University of South Carolina, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Mercer University.

Dr. Klee performed two selections with the King Band.  The first was Giulio Briccialdi’s exciting Carnival of Venice, a showcase selection for Flute that demonstrated brilliant virtuoso technique.  Dr. Klee then presented Arthur Pryor’s humorous The Whistler and His Dog, a classic Piccolo solo written in 1905.