June 28, 2015

       On Sunday evening, June 28th, the weekly concert by the Karl L. King Municipal Band featured something for everyone’s musical taste.  Conductor Jerrold P. Jimmerson and Assistant Conductor Dr. David Klee led the band in an hour-long sampling of a wide variety of music.

March music is always on the program, and this concert included King Henry by Karl King, King Karl King by Henry Fillmore, and Roland F. Seitz’s classic, Brooke’s Chicago Marine Band.  In addition, the band featured one of King’s beautiful serenades, A Night in June, and one of King’s ragtime selections, The Walking Frog, along with Fred Huffer’s exciting galop, The Thunderbolt.

    The evening’s classical offering was the overture to the opera, Raymond (The Queen’s Secret), by the French composer Ambrose Thomas.  Thomas attended the Paris Conservatory, and became one of the most successful French composers of his time.  This opera had its premier in Paris in June 1851, and was a dismal failure, but the overture has become one of the most popular of the French opera works.

      Also on the program was Country Gardens by English composer Percy Grainger, as arranged by John Philip Sousa.   On the lighter side was a medley of Duke Ellington compositions, titled Rhythmoods, including “Sophisticated Lady”, “Mood Indigo”, and “Black and Tan Fantasy”.

Guest soloist will be LuAnn Ewan on clarinet from Ames.  She grew up in Storm Lake and has played in the Karl King band on and off since high school.  She studied clarinet at Iowa State University and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education.  She taught for 11 years as a band director, with 10 of those in Ames.  She has been a private music teacher and chamber music coach for over 25 years.  In addition to performing with the King Band, she appears with several groups in the Ames area primarily on saxophone, clarinet, flute and piano.  In addition to teaching privately, she directs the Central Iowa Clarinet Choir.

   Ms. Ewan was then joined by the rest of the Clarinet section to perform Leroy Anderson’s novelty, Clarinet Candy.

       Featured during this program were the members of the Percussion section – Cathy Moklebust from Eagle Grove, Jeremy Smith from Fort Dodge, and Rollie Jensen from Humboldt – on the traditional rudimental solo, Dazzling Drums.