Stirring sounds to conjure ‘Scenes’ as Acton Band launches 66th season
Musicians filled 51 Walden with a lively mix of movements while rehearsing for its October 24 concert.
A melodious cacophony rang through 51 Walden on October 5 as members of the Acton Band awaited the start of their weekly rehearsal.
Miscellaneous strains emanated from brass and woodwind alike, punctuated by the thump of the timpani at the rear of the stage — the work of musicians reviewing their respective parts to be rehearsed that evening, before conductor James O’Dell would marshal them into a whole.
The play converged on a single note, and the musicians launched into rehearsal for their October 24 concert, “Scenes.”
They practiced and refined movements from “Of Sailors and Whales,” a W. Francis McBeth suite inspired by Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick,” and from Modest Mussorgsky’s iconic “Pictures at an Exhibition,” with O’Dell critiquing individual sections after each movement’s rehearsal.
“Everything’s programmatic, pretty much, in this [concert],” O’Dell said of the repertoire during a break. “It’s [all] depicting [things], and that’s why we have the title and theme as ‘Scenes.’”
A multisensory experience
The program will also include Norman Dello Joio’s “Scenes from the Louvre,” Robert W. Smith’s “Ireland: Of Legend and Lore,” and Robert Buckley’s “Iditarod.”
Some pieces will feature visual accompaniment.
“We’re showing slides during ‘Louvre’ that actually show some of the things that were [represented] in that,” said the Acton Band’s publicist and treasurer, Kenneth Troup, “and have some of the ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ that Mussorgsky was thinking about when he wrote that music.”
This month’s concert begins the Acton Band’s 66th season, with more events to follow through April 2027 at 51 Walden before its summer migration to Harvard.
The band’s fourth annual “Bandemonium” family concert, on November 7, will let young children closely engage with music, with an open floor area allowing them to sit close or dance. Past programs have featured songs from popular family movies — “They’re trying to get the music from ‘Moana 2’ [this year],” said Troup — alongside adaptations of traditional standards.
At the holiday pops concert on December 12, Acton’s Commonwealth Ballet will perform selections from “The Nutcracker” as well as a newly choreographed routine to a traditional Irish tune.
“I wanted to do something with dancers other than ‘The Nutcracker,’” O’Dell said. The new program “basically will be a world premiere.”
A commissioned addition
The March 13 winter concert will include a piece by Boston composer Jonathan Russell that the band commissioned. The composer is set to visit the band’s rehearsals in October to understand their instrumentation to guide his composition.
“It won’t surprise me if he has something that emphasizes clarinet,” Troup said, “partly because the [band member] commissioning it was a clarinetist as well.”
The Spring Pops concert will be held over two nights — April 10 and 11 — as a fundraiser for 51 Walden. In a throwback to Roaring ’20s swing dances, this concert will feature not just a “big-band”-style jazz ensemble, but also an open floor for attendees to dance.
Troup said the band hopes to “find a demonstrator or instructor; a couple who can demonstrate some stuff and then lead the dancing.”
For more information about performances, visit concordband.org.
