MusTech.Net!

The Grove City College Music Department Presents the 5th Annual Winter Jazz Concert Directed By Dr. Joseph M. Pisano on December 5th, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.   This concert features two full Big Bands with a variety of traditional jazz and Christmas favorites and will be held at the Pew Fine Arts Center of Grove City College.

The Grove City College Stage Ensemble is a Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller style band that plays Big Band and Show Tunes, complete with vocal quartets, duets, and soloists. 

The Grove City College Jazz Ensemble is more of a Dizzy Gillespie style Big Band that plays tunes and jazz styles that are more latin, modern, and funkified within the Big Band configuration.  Also, the group is more improvisational in nature.  (Click the image to expand it):

For those you within local driving distance this is a MUST BE AT EVENT- You Don’t Want to Miss It!!!The concert will be approximately 80 to 90 minutes and the stage setup features a full compliment of theater lighting, Christmas lighting, and massive visual effects. In addition, the house mix will be performed by Darren J. Morton. This concert is a great way to “Bring in the Season”!

You can find directions to the concert here by using Google Maps.   The Doors open at 7:30 p.m.  Hope to see you all there!

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Below is an embedded Picasa slide show of a number of photos take by Emily Maize of myself (conducting) and the Grove City College “Disney” Jazz Ensemble. Picasa is free, and is a competitor of Flickr (also free) which I also employ from time to time for photo sharing needs.  These programs are extremely useful to use and allow folks to share and distribute their pictures for virtually no cost (or little -if you want to make prints).

Disney had just put up their “winter” backdrop which can be seen in the background.  The vocalist in these pictures is senior music major, Ms. Erin Brignone.   You will also see audience members dancing to our music along with Disney’s character Stitch!.

If you would like to see these photos better or see more options click on the controls below:

The Grove City College Jazz & Stage Ensembles will be performing their 4th Annual Christmas Concert on December 7th, at 8:00 at Grove City College.  

Check out our event on eventful:

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or Google:

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Do you want to know more about posting your event online using cool services and syndication options like these?  Read this great article from mustech.net!

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On Monday we took the Grove City College Marching Wolverine Band to one of the many festivals that we attend each year.  This was not a festival that we have attended in the past.  Typically, the band heads south from GCC and attends many of the bigger Pittsburgh area festivals and marching shows.  On Monday, we headed east to the Allegheny-Clarion Valley school district.

It was great to arrive at Allegheny-Clarion High school and see the rural school setting.  It’s nestled in a valley between and among the many hills of the area.   The football field laid un-surrounded by fences, open and directly in front of the school.   As a matter of fact there weren’t any bleachers.  But, there were hundreds of people who brought their lawn chairs and sprawled out over every inch of the low rise hill on the home side of the field.

There were a number of high school bands at the festival that ranged in size from just over twenty to a little less than a hundred.  They were smaller sized bands most likely due to the location and population of their school districts.  They played their hearts out and did a fine job that night.

When our band played, “we brought the house down”.   It was great to be appreciated that night by all that were involved and attending the show but, the thing that impressed me most was afterward, when we began to receive emails about our performance. These came not only from the host of the show but also from the people in attendance…the emails arrived that very night. 

It was extremely encouraging to receive such an onslaught of emails.  I’m not sure who or what caused this to happen, but we’ve never had such a “day after response” of feedback.  This made me think a little bit more about how much great events like this are “taken for granted” and can be quickly forgotten and under-appreciated the moment they are finished…

When you stop to think about the magnitude of what must be accomplished to have a band festival -the logistics are staggering.  By the time the host gets the facility scheduled and staffed on the day of the event, has the ticket and concession stand stocked and operating, deploys the traffic control measures, sets up the sound system, procures the seating assignments, prepares the award ceremonies, readies the restrooms and discovers  the ”nack” of being a meteorologist, they might have al little time to prepare their own band!  This list doesn’t even account for the amount of prepartions that the attending directors and band members must make in order to even be at the event (think about the time it takes to simply coordinate and acquire the 20+ buses that will be converging at the event). 

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