October 27, 2025
On Thursday, November 6, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. in the Northland Community & Technical College Theatre in Thief River Falls, instrumental performers from the area will take the stage to entertain and educate our audience with music that helped to share American music. To tell the story, the Northland Community Band is happy to share that Northland History Instructor, Caleb Curfman, will be providing informational, historical highlights between the selections. We happily welcome families and children. There is no admission, but a freewill donation will be accepted to support the continuing work of the non-profit Northwest Minnesota Community Bands group that was formed in 2011.
The music for the first half of this performance will include selections from England as well as from Africa to share and appreciate what both areas contributed to American music. Our pieces from England include: “Flourish for Wind Band” by Ralph Vaughan Williams; “Themes from Green Bushes” which is a jaunty dance tune arranged by Percy Aldridge Grainger and rounded out with “Postcard from England” by Robert Buckley who wants the audience to envision a walk through the English countryside with thatched cottages, castles, and rolling hills.
The African pieces with start with “Serengeti: An African Rhapsody” written by John Higgins. The music is based on folk themes from Central Africa. The imagery includes a safari, voodoo, a celebration, and finishes up with a sunset. Our fun, audience-participation piece will hopefully be bolstered by the audience in a clapping piece that will recreate the rhythms of Western Africa. The third piece is “Sub-Saharan Rhythm” that is based on three melodies that the composer, David Gillingham, heard in a documentary. African percussion instruments will dominate this performance.
The second half of this 1-hour concert will be music from America, including three versions of our National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner” as arranged by John Philip Sousa, Henry Fillmore, and Jack Stamp. The Community Band will then have four very different pieces to represent various aspects of American band music including “American Patrol” by F.W. Meacham which recreates a band in the distance but grows louder as it gets closer and then fades away as it leaves. A fun, country, folk-tune will be next, “Cotton-Eyed Joe.” This piece was given a modern overhaul in the 1990s and can still be heard at high school dance. And what would a trip through American music be without Jazz? “Jazzy Capriccio” will give the audience a unique jazzy experience before concluding our concert with “Fantasy on an African American Spiritual.” This piece, arranged by Bruce Preuninger is based on the song “My Lord, What a Morning.”
There will be a freewill admission for the Fall Band Concert to be held at Northland College on Thursday, Nov.6, at 7:00 p.m. For more information, you can contact Linda Samuelson, Music Instructor, at 218-683-8717 or by email at linda.samuelson@northlandcollege.edu.