WESTFIELD, NJ - The Westfield Community Band wrapped up its four-part summer concert series on Thursday night with an all-out celebration of music as they played selections from a wide array of genres. Members of the band, who range in age and talent levels, played several tunes for a crowd of over 100 residents on Thursday, July 15, 2010. With selections from Broadway to Classical, the crowd enjoyed songs in Mindowaskin Park next to serene Mindowaskin Lake.

Thomas N. Connors, Conductor of the Westfield Community Band, has been leading the orchestra since 2004 and has been conducting for over 30 years. According to the program, Dr. Connors has expanded the ensembles repertoire to include more contemporary works and also has added traditional band marches. "We try to do a variety of music," said Connors. "Tonight we will be doing Poet and Peasant Overture, which is an orchestral overture from the late 19th Century, and themes from Porgy and Bess, a 1935 opera by George Gershwin." Dr. Connors mentioned that the band itself usually has 50 to 70 players but had less than 30 players on Thursday night because of the size of the gazebo at the park.

An upcoming milestone for the band will be its centennial celebration in 2012.  Dr. Connors spoke briefly about this and the band’s recent accomplishments: "We recently commissioned a piece which is very near to being done and we’ll be premiering it in 2012. It’s a long piece which will be published and performed to the community."

Eileen O’Donnell, Vice President of the Community Band, spoke before the show about the band’s guest conductor: "The band will be playing much from The Music Man, for which we will have a guest conductor stepping in -- Ken Reed who plays in the Sax Forte at the beginning of the show." O’Donnell also spoke about the band’s style or arrangement: "The band is a traditional concert band meaning that we don’t have any string instruments. It’s a variety of all sorts of wind instruments, brass instruments and we include musicians from all walks of life. We have very talented students but we also have professional musicians and music teachers. Some of our musicians were very talented at a younger age and came back to it in a later stage of life. We have a large number of people who have been in the band for 20, 30 and even 40 years."

Thursday’s performance started off with three songs from the Sax Forte, which consists of four Saxophone players. The group playing the opening act was: Marty Steinmart, Ken Reed, Mark Rakita and Ernie Seemann. They were also accompanied by Kenny Medina, who plays percussion and bongos for the opening set. Medina has been playing classical percussion for five years said that the percussion is sort of like the glue and the wind instruments are like the voice speaking to the crowd. Medina recently graduated from college with a BA in Music and plans to go to Manhattan to try for a career in music.

The first half of the performance began with the Star Spangled Banner and then slid into A Festival Prelude by Alfred Reed. The band really came alive during the second song, Poet and Peasant Overture composed by Franz von Suppe. The song had a slow building speed then lunged into a chaotic, frantic section before returning to a slower finale. The Music Man selections, originally composed by Edwin Bagley, were more of a crowd pleaser with such songs as 76 Trombones and Till There Was You. Guest Composer Ken Reed led the band nicely with a fluid movement seen in most seasoned composers.

After a short intermission, the band jumped flawlessly into a Porgy and Bess Medley by legendary composer George Gershwin. The band seemed to fire on all cylinders as they belted out tunes such as: I Got Plenty Of Nuttin’ and I’m On My Way. With one final selection on the ballot the band played Music For A Festival composed by Philip Sparke.

During the second half of the performance the group handed out an award for 10 Years of Band Service to Roger Story. The group also made reference to Mr. George Toenes, who has been playing in the band for over 40 years. Toenes was also a substitute 1st Chair Clarinet for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for a number of years.

The last and finale song not listed in the program was an encore performance of Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue, which gave the crowd a chance to clap along to the beat. The final concert for the summer series ended at about 9:00 pm, but it was not the end for music in Westfield this summer.  Mindowaskin Park with be host to a Swing Band next Thursday night.