Stardust Big Band back on stage at OTA

By Sequim Gazette Staff • November 3, 2021 1:30 am

Founded in 1990, the Stardust Big Band— long known for its renditions of cherished favorites from the Big Band era of the 1930s and 1940s — hits the Olympic Theatre Arts Center stage at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 7.

Often playing for dancers, Stardust will instead present some of the band members’s favorite arrangements in concert format.

Tickets to this Main Stage concert are $20 and are available at the theatre box office from 1-4 p.m., Tuesday-Friday or online at OlympicTheatreArts.org.

Vocalist Tess Teal will sing several well-known standards, and the ensemble will present instrumental classics made famous by Count Basie, Buddy Rich, Glenn Miller, Tom Kubis and others. Featured soloists include Bill Cole on tenor sax, Ed Donahue on trumpet, Tim Naples on trombone and George Radebaugh on piano/keyboards.

The pieces the band is preparing for the Nov. 7 concert include selections from Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich and standards from the “Great American Songbook.”

Stardust is under the musical direction of lead alto saxophone player Tom Guenther, who serves as Kingston High School’s band director. He began his tenure with Stardust in the spring, when rehearsing restarted after a year of inactivity due to the COVID pandemic.

“Jazz is a uniquely American art form, and it is exciting to be able to preserve and share that part of our history with audiences young and old,” Guenther said.

Also feature are bassist Vern Fosket, who recent retired after 28 years of directing the bands at Sequim High School, and Donahue, a trumpet player who was band director for decades at Stevens Middle School in Port Angeles.

“Music is my life and soul,” Donahue said. “I believe in preserving this style of music alive and well. The Stardust Big Band is doing just that. I really enjoy the camaraderie of this exciting band and am happy to be a part of it.”

Other band members include: John Adams, alto and soprano sax; Doug Brundage, Phil Lepper and Marge Rosen, trumpet; Cliff Brown, Jeff Dingle and Waayne Paulsen, trombone; Andy Geiger, tenor sax; Al Thompson, baritone sax; and, Steve Burdick, drums.

For more information, call the theatre at 360-683-7326.

Tess Teal, a well-known singer of jazz and pop tunes who leads her own combos in many area venue, is featured on many songs performed by the Stardust Big Band. Submitted photo

Band director for decades at Stevens Middle School in Port Angeles, Ed Donahue is set to play solos as occupier of the “jazz chair” in the Stardust Big Band trumpet section at the group’s Nov. 7 concert at Olympic Theatre Arts Center. Submitted photo