This week’s program features the Heart of Texas Concert Band, and is dedicated to the magic of Disney music in all its variety, from golden-age animation to Broadway and modern cinema. So come on, Mouseketeers, let’s head for the second star to the right, straight on till morning for some great music!
In planning the program, Music Director Mark Rogers, who used to work for Southern Music Publishing Company, said there’s no shortage of great arrangements for ensembles of all sizes.
“Every time [Disney] comes up with a show like ‘Little Mermaid’ which they can tell is going to be a hit, they go to the publishers and they say, ‘okay, we need 40 different arrangements of this,’” for all grade levels, choir, band, et cetera.
Guest conductor Bradlee Hooker brought “Beauty and the Beast” to the show, and Rogers said the arrangement by John Moss, while challenging, gave the band a kick.
“They could see that he was inspired,” Rogers said.
Three more of the arrangements on the program are from Japanese composers.
“They have a very high standard in terms of the arrangers they’re looking for,” Rogers said. “They’re intense about Disney in Japan!”
And for the Heart of Texas Concert Band, he said they leapt to the challenge.
PROGRAM
- Disney Fantasy — arr. by Naohiro Iwai
- Walt Disney Overture — arr. by Frank Erickson
- Sleeping Beauty: Waltz — Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arr. by Yo Kitano
- Babes in Toyland: Selections — Victor Herbert
- The Lion King — arr. by Kazuhiro Morita
- Beauty and the Beast — Alan Menken, arr. by John Moss
- Pirates of the Caribbean, symphonic suite — Klaus Badelt, arr. by John Wasson
- Disney at the Oscars — arr. by John Moss
