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Summer 2020 Virtual Concert 1
June 5, 2020
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Medina Community Band will be unable to present live concerts on the Gazebo of Medina’s Uptown Park Square during the 2020 summer season due to the Coronavirus 19 Pandemic. We will; however, be presenting virtual concerts throughout the June and July season here on our website.
Notes and Rests from the Maestro. I have lost my ability to tell which day it is – every day feels like a pandemic mini-series or a very scary version of my own “Groundhog Day.” I have found solace in reading John Barry’s “The Great Influenza” and it seems that what they experienced during the 1918 Pandemic isn’t too far from what we are experiencing now! With the extra time on my hands, it seems more of my time has been devoted to playing my flute (good for my lungs and breath capacity); conducting scores for future concerts (good for my cardio-aerobic exercise); and, finally getting out in the yard to play in the dirt (good to help remove too many pounds from inactivity).
With the schools closed, Medina Community Band rehearses in the band room at Highland Middle School have been cancelled since mid-March. And, of course, with the Public Square closed to large groups, we can’t perform. We still haven’t figured out how to play wind instruments with face masks, or find a space big enough to comply with social distancing. And, frankly, too many of our MCB members are just scared to take the chance of risking catching the virus while rehearsing or performing. And, we don’t want to give it to our fans in a concert setting. So, we have followed what many musical organizations are doing – attempting to construct a virtual concert. We all really miss rehearsing and performing!
In an article published by the Medina Sentinel on October 18 1918, entitled “Postpone draft call on account of the flu,” it was announced the under instructions from Washington, Major Pealer, state of Ohio draft office, postponed the call for 4,000 men to report from Ohio to Camp Wadsworth , South Carolina, between October 21 and 26. The men will not be called until the epidemic has been stamped out. Of the call for 4000 men, 49 were selected to go from Medina County.
Mary Jane Brewer, wrote in an April 17, 2020, article of Cleveland.com, on Oct. 18, 1918, the Medina Gazette first reported the Spanish Flu in Medina County: “Few Genuine Cases of Flu: Although There Are a Great Many of Colds and Grip. One Death in Medina County.” “While there is a great deal of sickness in the village and county of Medina, it is a question how many cases there are of real Spanish influenza, the epidemic which is spreading over the country,” the report noted. “The only death so far ascribed to influenza is that of Blake Myers, of Spencer, who was infected with tuberculosis and hence an easy victim.” (His sister Pauline died a week later; she also was “afflicted with tuberculosis.”) (https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/coronavirus-pandemic-has-many-similarities-to-1918-flu-epidemic/ar-BB12N5VS
A huge gathering took place on the Medina Uptown Park Square on November 7, 1918. Seville brought it’s band, whose stirring music alternating with that of the Medina Band gave zest to the parade. The parade started from the intersection of West Liberty street and the public square at 7 o’clock, a half hour later than the scheduled time. The line of march was taken east to Broadway, thence south to Washington Street, thence west to Main Street, and back to the place of beginning. Another, and even bigger gathering took place on November 11, 1918 to celebrate the actual armistice of World War I. From the Medina Sentinel November 22, 1918 – Influenza has broken out in Medina again and on Monday morning the school board ordered the schools closed, and Health Officer Harding prohibited any more public meetings of any kind under further notice. The local movie theater was permitted to give a show Monday and Tuesday nights. There will be no church services next Sunday.
PLEASE take care, please keep in touch, and please know that we will be back together at some point in time. That happened in 1918, and it will happen in 2020. Until we can present live concerts for you, we will do our best to continue to post virtual concerts – or repeat those that have been posted.
Marcus L. Neiman, conductor, Medina Community Band
A Virtual Summer Concert by the
Medina Community Band
Welcome from City of Medina Mayor Dennis Hanwell
It is with great pride that I welcome you to the Medina Community Band’s first virtual concert season. Although the band can’t perform for you in person because of the present COVID-19 restrictions, it important to keep this more than 160 year tradition alive. The city is blessed to have some of the most talented musicians in our area come together for our enjoyment and we appreciate each of their respective efforts. I thank each of you for your support and interest in the renowned Medina Community Band and the Medina Community Band Association. May God bless each of you and your families, as well as keep you safe and healthy. Please join me now as we enjoy the Medina Community Band in virtual concert!
Sincerely – Dennis Hanwell, Mayor, City of Medina
| Selection | Composer/Arranger | Conductor | Soloist/Ensemble | Live Performance Date |
| The Star Spangled Banner (1889) | Francis Scott Key/John Philip Sousa | Frank Cosenza | July 15, 2016 – Medina Gazebo | |
| March from Folk Song Suite (1924) | Ralph Vaugh Williams | Marcus Neiman | May 4, 2019 – Medina HS Middle Stage | |
| Harlem Nocturne (1939) | Earl Hagen/Alfred Reed | Marcus Neiman | Thomas Lempner | June 8, 2018 – Medina Gazebo |
| The Volunteers March (1918) | John Philip Sousa | Marcus Neiman | May 4, 2018 – Medina HS Middle Stage | |
| The Typewriter (1950) | Leroy Anderson | Edward Lichtenberg | Dennis Hanwell | December 16, 2012 – Medina HS Middle Stage |
| Hungarian March Rákóczy (1846) | Hector Berlioz/Leonard Smith | Marcus Neiman | May 5, 2019 – Medina HS Middle Stage | |
| The Stars and Stripes Forever (1896) | John Philip Sousa | Marcus Neiman | June 2009 – Medina Gazebo | |
Trumpet player, band director, and educator. Frank Cosenza has been heavily involved in music since the age of eight when he began studying the trumpet. He received a talent scholarship to Bowling Green State University where his performance opportunities took off. From recitals, top 40s bands, orchestras, shows and backing up entertainers, he is at home to any style of music. His teachers included: Joe Hruby, Bernard Adelstein, Edwin Betts, James Stamp and Scott Johnston. A native of South Euclid, Ohio, Frank has performed in many, many varied venues, including Severance Hall and Blossom Music Center (home of the Cleveland Orchestra), The Cleveland Palace and State Theaters, Nautica Stage and a host of churches. He has taken his talents to Europe performing concerts in many different countries as well as numerous big bands, pit bands, orchestras and concert bands in Northeast Ohio. He has had the opportunity to play under several noted conductors including Leonard B. Smith, Frederick Fennell and Loras Schissel.
Equally at home in education, Frank spent many years as a band director with great success while performing regularly on trumpet. His bands have received many superior awards including performances at State Conventions for the American School Band Directors Association and the Ohio Music Education Association. Additionally, his groups have performed in numerous venues including Canada, Europe and throughout the United States. His musicianship has even extended to the vocal spectrum as he has conducted choirs on several occasions. He has served the Ohio Music Education Association as State Trustee, All-State Coordinator, past District President, member of music selection committees, and adjudicator. He is a former Interim Director of Athletic Bands/Concert Band at Kent State University and previous Associate Conductor of the Medina Community Band. Frank is currently a conductor with Lakeland Civic Band (Mentor, Ohio)
Medina Community Band has been opening concerts with our national anthem since the 1930s, when The Star Spangled Banner was officially named as national anthem by congressional action.
English Folk Song Suite reveals Vaughan Williams interest in and association with the folk song movement which swept through England toward the close of the 19 century. His wife, Ursula, wrote: “Folk music weaves in and out of his work all through his life, sometimes adapted for some particular occasion, sometimes growing into the fabric of orchestral writings.” The suite English Folk Songs, was written for the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall. Vaughan Williams had been particularly happy to undertake the Suite, according to his wife, as he enjoyed working in a medium new to him. “A military band was a change from an orchestra, and in his not-so-far off army days he had heard enough of the ‘original monger’s light stuff” to feel that a chance to play real tunes would be an agreeable and salutary experience for bandsman.”
The final movement of the suite, March – Folk Songs from Somerset, includes four songs, each presented as successive, contrasting themes in march style, all taken from the titular county on the southwestern peninsula of England. It begins with a light, jaunty melody entitled Blow Away the Morning Dew, also known traditionally as The Baffled Knight, which tells the story of a soldier enticed by a fair maiden, only to be teasingly tricked at the last minute. The second folk song, perhaps providing an answer to the first, is a rousing war ballad dating from the War of the Spanish Succession entitled High Germany, where a soldier attempts to entice another fair maiden to accompany him to war on the Continent. The Trio of the march, The Tree So High, tells the story of an arranged marriage between two children, in a conversation between the unhappy daughter and her father. This is answered by the famous tune, John Barleycorn, a tale of a knight battling, in some versions, a miller or a group of drunkards, all of whom want to “chop him down,” which can be interpreted as an allegorical telling of the events in the cultivation and harvesting of barley. Finally, the march repeats da capo, repeating the first two melodies before closing with a flourish.
Alto Saxophone Soloist – Thomas Lempner, alto saxophone, serves on faculty at Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music, Cleveland State University, Notre Dame College, and is a woodwind coach for the Cleveland Institute of Music Cleveland Youth Wind Symphonies. Thomas has premiered solo and chamber works for saxophone as well as recording on Palmyra Music. As a music therapist, he has worked at the Prentiss Autism Center and has over ten years’ experience working with the urban youth population of Cleveland who have severe emotional disturbances. Thomas earned a master of music at Kent State University and earned a double bachelor’s degree in music therapy and music performance at the Baldwin Wallace College Conservatory of Music and a diploma from the Armed Forces School of Music in Little Creek, Virginia. He is a veteran of the United States Armed Forces. And is an endorsing artist for Air Revelation and is a Conn-Selmer Performing Artist.
“Harlem Nocturne” Earle Hagen was born in Chicago, Illinois, and as a boy he moved with his family to Los Angeles, California, where he learned to play the trombone in junior high school, and graduated from Hollywood High School. He left home to join traveling big bands, at age 16, and played with Ray Noble, and many others. While with Noble he wrote Harlem Nocturne, on the road in 1939, as a tribute to Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges. The piece was later used as the theme to television’s Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.
Sousa’s march, “The Volunteers,” was dedicated To Mr. E.C. Hurley, chairman of shipping board and the ship builders of America. During World War I, a government official asked Sousa to compose a march dedicated to the workers building ships for the war effort, asking also that the music include the sounds of the shipyard: riveting, sirens and anvils. Sousa responded elegantly and creatively, composing one of his most unusual marches.
In this age of computers and the Internet, a piece of music paying tribute to the typewriter, which in 1950 was still an important piece of technology, might seem a bit quaint. But even computers have keyboards and it is the sound of a typewriter’s keyboard that is central to this piece of music in its color and humor. Leroy Anderson was known to use a variety of objects in his scores — like sandpaper and wood in the Sandpaper Ballet — and thus his use of a typewriter here is hardly unusual. We are delighted to feature a long-time supporter of the arts in our community, and specifically, Medina Community Band. We are honored, and delighted, to feature Mayor Dennis Hanwell in Leroy Anderson’s “The Typewriter.”
Mayor Dennis Hanwell, is the Mayor/Safety Director for the City of Medina. He had been the Chief of Police for the City of Medina for over twelve years. He has over 36 years of service with the City of Medina, and over 38 years of law enforcement experience. Dennis has an Associate’s Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Akron, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice Administration from Tiffin University. Dennis had served as the President of the Medina County Police Chiefs’ Association for the eleven years. Dennis has had articles published in national criminal justice periodicals and has been a speaker at previous Ohio Attorney General Conferences, Safe Community Conferences, & Public Safety Director’s Conferences. Under his tenure, the City of Medina Police Department has received both state and national recognition for various community policing initiatives. Those initiatives have now been implemented city wide under a Community Oriented Government model. Dennis has been married to Chris for 41 years this August. They have two adult children, Jonathan and Nicole, and two precious grandchildren, Madison and Aiden.
Edward Lichtenberg (at right), retired in 1998 as Assistant Superintendent for Midview Schools in Lorain County after 32 years in education. Before becoming Assistant Superintendent, 
Ed was a middle school administrator and Director of Bands at Midview, where his concert bands consistently earned superior ratings in class A. Prior to working 30 years for Midview, Ed was Director of Instrumental Music at Linden McKinley High School in Columbus. Ed has been a member of the Medina Community Band since 1993. He was also active as an Ohio Music Education Association and as a staff member for the Ashland University Adult Music Camp. Ed has performed on clarinet or saxophone with Sounds of Sousa, the Lorain Pops Orchestra, the Doc McDonald Orchestra, the Tommy Dorsey Band, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and many small groups. He has also conducted concert bands throughout Europe for American Music Abroad. Ed is a graduate of The Ohio State University and Kent State University, and has done post-graduate work at Ashland University, Bowling Green State University, Cleveland State University, and Kent State University. He studied clarinet with Oliver Shubert, George Waln, Robert Marcellus, and Donald McGinnis. Ed has been married to his wife, Judy, for 44 years.
Berlioz composed his “Hungarian March” in 1846 for a concert in Budapest. The march used a favorite Hungarian national tune called the Rákóczy theme, which was named for the famous Hungarian patriot Ferenc Rákóczy. That same year, Berlioz incorporated this march into The Damnation of Faust, his large-scale setting for vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra of the great German dramatist Goethe’s story about a man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge. The Hungarian Mach begins with a trumpet fanfare, after which the flutes and clarinets softly introduce the Rákóczy theme. Through a long crescendo, this theme grows steadily in power and sonority until it blazes forth in its full glory, majestically proclaimed by the brasses and carried by them to a rousing conclusion.
“The Stars and Stripes Forever ” (March) is considered the finest march ever written, and at the same time one of the most patriotic ever conceived. As reported in the Philadelphia Public Ledger (May 15, 1897) “ … It is stirring enough to rouse the American eagle from his crag, and set him to shriek exultantly while he hurls his arrows at the aurora borealis.” (referring to the concert the Sousa Band gave the previous day at the Academy of Music) The march was not quite so well received though and actually got an over average rating for a new Sousa march. Yet, its popularity grew as Mr. Sousa used it during the Spanish-American War as a concert closer. Coupled with his Trooping of the Colors, the march quickly gained a vigorous response from audiences and critics alike. In fact, audiences rose from their chairs when the march was played. Mr. Sousa added to the entertainment value of the march by having the piccolo(s) line up in front of the band for the final trio, and then added the trumpets and trombones join them on the final repeat of the strain.
The march was performed on almost all of Mr. Sousa’s concerts and always drew tears to the eyes of the audience. The author has noted the same emotional response of audiences to the march today. The march has been named as the national march of The United States. There are two commentaries of how the march was inspired. The first came as the result of an interview on Mr. Sousa’s patriotism. According to Mr. Sousa, the march was written with the inspiration of God. “I was in Europe and I got a cablegram that my manager was dead. I was in Italy and I wished to get home as soon as possible, I rushed to Genoa, then to Paris, and to England and sailed for America. On board the steamer as I walked miles up and down the deck, back and forth, a mental band was playing ‘Stars and Stripes Forever.’ Day after day as I walked it persisted in crashing into my very soul. I wrote it on Christmas Day, 1896.”
The second, and more probable inspiration for the march, came from Mr. Sousa’s own homesickness. He had been away from his homeland for some time on tour, and told an interviewer: “In a kind of dreamy way, I used to think over old days at Washington when I was leader of the Marine Band … when we played at all public functions, and I could see the Stars and Stripes flying from the flagstaff in the grounds of the White House just as plainly as if I were back there again.” “Then I began to think of all the countries I had visited, of the foreign people I had met, of the vast differences between America and American people and other countries and other peoples, and that flag our ours became glorified … and to my imagination it seemed to be the biggest, grandest, flag in the world, and I could not get back under it quick enough.” “It was in this impatient, fretful state of mind that the inspiration to compose ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever’ came to me.”
The march evolved over its first few years of performance. Mr. Sousa would premiere a new march and place it as an encore on the program. It must be remembered that The Sousa Band was a concert band and performed in concert halls, opera houses, theaters, and other large rooms. Mr. Sousa would verbally make changes on the march to his players during this time. After the march was “broken in” the changes would become standard for future performances. It would also seem logical that changes the musicians themselves did, either through intention or simply performance, would also be added to the march. There are many reasons why the “authentic” Sousa style does not appear on most editions of the march today. Prime among them are the simple fact that most publishers will not go into that much detail for the interpretation of a “march.” Another probable cause is that Mr. Sousa was an entertainer and did not want the competition to “lift” his composition’s unique performance quality.
Medina Community Band is proudly sponsored and supported by the Medina Community Band Association, composed of members of Medina Community Band. The board of directors consists of Lu Ann Gresh, president; Amy Muhl, vice president; Kristin Thompson, financial secretary; Karen Sater, treasurer; Sue McLaughlin, secretary; with directors John Connors, Dr. Thomas Kenat, Monica Lenox, and Gail Sigmund.
Membership in MCB is open and there are no dues or auditions; however, members are expected to maintain a regular attendance. The band rehearses on Wednesday evening from 7p – 9p in the band room of Highland Middle School (3880 Ridge Road, Medina). The band also presents their popular summer series every Friday, June through July, in Medina’s Uptown Park Gazebo. Each year the band presents at a winter concert, and, spring concert. For additional information on the 2019 concert season or Medina Community Band, contact Neiman at 330.725.8198 or MarcusNeiman@medinacommunityband.org.