The Concord Band opens its 2024–25 season with a concert on Saturday, October 26, 7:00 pm at the 51 Walden Performing Arts Center. Music Director James O’Dell chose the theme “100th Anniversaries” in recognition of Geoge Gershwin’s composition and premiere of Rhapsody in Blue in 1924, a year that marks many musical milestones.
The program commemorates the passing of composer Giacomo Puccini, the most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, and Gabriel Fauré, one of the foremost French composers of his generation. The program also features Camille Saint-Saëns’ Pas Redouble, arranged for band by Arthur Frackenpohl, as well as Academy Award winning themes by Henry Mancini, considered one of the greatest composers in the history of film, in an arrangement by Warren Barker. Both Frackenpohl and Mancini were born in 1924.
Gershwin composed Rhapsody in Blue in a few short weeks for a concert by Paul Whiteman’s Palais Royal Orchestra, titled “An Experiment in Modern Music,” presented at Aeolean Hall in New York City in February of 1924. Whiteman’s intent was to show that American jazz could be combined with classical and other types of music. The original score by Ferde Grofe comprised 23 instruments and piano solo. Subsequently, Thomas Verrier expanded the original setting to concert band instrumentation based on Grofe’s manuscripts.
Pianist Jake Kinney is the featured soloist on Rhapsody in Blue. Kinney is a versatile musician, performing with the Concord Band on trumpet, with our Jazz Ensemble on piano, as well as leading our Holiday Pops sing-along on vocals.
Throughout his life, Kinney has a record of achieving his childhood aspirations. Since two years of age, when he went to his father’s MIT class reunion, Jake wanted to attend MIT too. He graduated in 2020 with a degree in Physics. Jake played trumpet in the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble and sang in the a cappella group, MIT Resonance. He continued his education at Boston University with a master’s degree in computational linguistics.
Jake started piano lessons when he was three years old and was inspired by the Disney movie, Fantasia 2000, which included Rhapsody in Blue in the film score. He determined that someday he would play the piece. He accomplished that in 2014, first performing the piece at the Snow Pond Center for the Arts in Sidney, ME, and again in 2016 with the Greece Symphony Orchestra in Rochester, NY. Of the composition, Jake said, “it is one of my favorite pieces of music of all time, truly occupying a unique niche within the piano repertoire. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Jim O’Dell and the Concord Band for this opportunity.”
Another of Jake’s long-standing goals was to through-hike the Appalachian Trail. This aspiration was reinforced over the years as he knew several teachers, friends, and colleagues who had hiked the Trail. He trained in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, culminating in 2023 when he took a leave of absence and hiked beginning in Georgia on March 4 until September 7 when he summited Mount Katahdin in Maine. Jake documented his journey and epilogue with photos and descriptions on a blog, https://outthereonthetrail.com/.
Admission to the Concord Band’s Fall Concert is free, with a requested donation of $20 per person. A reception will follow the concert.
