Sequim City Band preps ‘Movies, Musicals and Marches’

By Michael Dashiell • August 14, 2024 1:30 am

Break out the popcorn and the snacks: it’s time to go the movies with the Sequim City Band’s “Movies, Musicals and Matches” concert.

The community group offers another of their “Concert at the James” series at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 18, at the James Center for the Performing Arts bandshell at Carrie Blake Community Park, 506 N. Blake Ave.

Under the baton of band and music director Tyler Benedict, the band’s concert features music from blockbuster movies, Broadway musicals and a march by one of the American “March Kings.”

The harmonies of “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” by John Williams looks to set the tone for the afternoon concert in a piece commissioned by the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for Williams to replace Leo Arnaud’s “Bugler’s Dream” fanfare, used since the first televised broadcast of the 1968 Games.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Michael Dashiell / Tyler Benedict, Sequim City Band’s band and music director, leads the group in patriotic tunes at their annual Independence Day concert in July.

The concert also features a medley from the movie score for “Apollo 13” — looking to capture the mood of the true story of technical troubles that scuttled the 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission, risking the lives of astronaut Jim Lovell and his crew. Composer James Horner’s piece portrays the exhilaration of leaving Earth’s atmosphere, the horrors of the explosion and its aftermath, and the triumphal return to Earth.

Jaunting tunes make up a medley from the “Pirates of the Caribbean,” the fantasy swashbuckler movie following the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow. Klaus Badelt, with help from fellow composer Hans Zimmer, packed the movie score with themes that tell tall tales of barbaric buccaneers, swashbuckling shipmates and menacing marauders.

Photo by Richard Greenway/Sequim City Band / Sequim City Band members enjoy a moment during warm-ups at their Independence Day concert in July.

The musical “Evita,” penned by Andrew Lloyd Webber with collaborator Tim Rice, chronicles Eva Perón’s rise to power and her love-hate relationship with the people of her country. “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” her heartfelt plea for understanding and forgiveness, book-ends the theater performance.

Other band offerings including light-hearted tunes from the musical romantic comedy “Guys and Dolls” and a rare treat, “Tuba Tiger Rag,” a tuba solo featuring a city band member.

Save the date: The Sequim City Band caps its “Concerts at the James” 2024 series with “Instrumental Animations” at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15, back at the James Center bandshell.

More information about the Sequim City Band, visit sequimcityband.org or facebook.com/Sequim.City.Band.