Director Mark A. Taylor

There will be something for everyone to love on the season’s final concert by the DuPage Community Concert Band. The band opens with a performance of excerpts from Johan De Meij’s Symphony No. 1, music inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings.  This grand symphonic composition predates the popular film franchise by a decade, and is filled with melodies inspired by the stories’ characters and adventures directly.  Next, the band performs a wind band arrangement of one of Florence Beatrice Price’s final compositions, The Old Boatman.  She composed this simple but lovely melody as a piano piece for her students.  The Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald City appear on the horizon, as the band performs selections from Harold Arlen’s iconic score from the 1938 film The Wizard of Oz.  Sousa’s “Liberty Bell March” and a medley from Geogre Gershwin’s groundbreaking 1935 opera Porgy and Bess follow, before concluding with Morton Gould’s madcap set of variations on “Yankee Doodle.”

DuPage Community Concert Band exists to embrace and express all of the beauty and glory we can share through playing great music. Concerts feature entertaining music for audiences, as well as stimulating the performer that is consistent with the representation and growth of the college and community band.

Rehearsal for the DuPage Community Concert Band are Monday nights, 7 to 9:30 p.m., Room 138 -McAninch Arts Center. Membership is open to high school graduates with windwood, brass or percussion experience or to anyone who is otherwise qualified musically to register. Auditions needed for chair placement, but no one refused membership. Call (630) 942-2048 for registration information.

About the Director: Mark A. Taylor is a conductor, educator, and performer in demand throughout the Great Lakes region, Dr. Taylor has taught with distinction at every level of study, ranging from elementary, middle, and high school to collegiate, amateur, and professional musicians. He is Music Director of Milwaukee Festival Brass, an award winning British-style brass band, and Music Director of the Waukegan Band, one of America’s oldest and most historic civic ensembles. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2016 from the University of North Texas. Prior to his doctoral study, he served five years as Director of Bands and Coordinator of Ensembles at Loyola University Chicago, and member of music education faculty at Roosevelt University. Dr. Taylor received the Master of Music degree from Northwestern University. He received his undergraduate degrees from the University of Notre Dame and also performed in the Concert Band, Orchestra, Liturgical Choir, Men’s Glee Club, and Collegium Musicum. Dr. Taylor performs as section percussionist with the internationally award-winning Chicago Brass Band. He and his wife and son reside in Lake Forest, IL.