Dr. John Snavely, Music Director/Conductor
To our fabulous patrons and friends of the Green Valley Concert Band Inc. from Musical Director and Conductor, John Snavely
2023-’24 Green Valley Concert Band Season
To our valued, supportive and faithful audience members: We are thrilled at the prospect of performing our new concert season for your enjoyment and entertainment! We take pride in providing quality performances with a wide variety of musical styles chosen to enthrall and delight. Our concert music is prepared with diligence and care. We strive to share our love of excellent music with you, our esteemed and appreciated GVCB community. Our season ends with a performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue with guest artist Eileen Prager Perry Schwartz. 2024 is the 100th anniversary of Gershwin’s Rhapsody! Eileen, our soloist grew up in New York City where her father played trumpet in the New York Philharmonic. Leonard Bernstein noticed Eileen’s talent became her mentor. Eileen’s mother was in a group of friends with Gershwin’s grandmother. Eileen plays the most authentic and brilliant Rhapsody you will ever hear, a performance not to miss!
Your ticket purchases and donations allow us to perform outstanding concerts as well as purchase new music, necessary instruments and showcase guest artists. An important part of our mission is to assist area school band programs, students and their teachers with additional funds and instruments for their programs as well as scholarships for summer music camp for deserving students. Concert Themes and musical highlights of our new season follow:
Spookily Spectacular Halloween Themed Music (and other favorites)
10/19 and 10/20 2023 at CPAC, Green Valley, 4:30 p.m. and Canoa Ranch 10/22, 5 p.m.
You won’t want to miss out on our performances of a wide variety of concert favorites and Halloween themed music. Selections include:
Phantom Of The Opera: Introduction and Scream! Andrew Lloyd Weber
An Outdoor Overture Aaron Copland
March To The Scaffold Hector Berlioz arr. Rogers
Broadway Showstoppers arr. Warren Barker
Danse Macabre Camille Saint Saens
Pirates Of The Caribbean Hans Zimmer arr. Wasson
A Rockin’ Halloween Michael Story
Season’s Greetings!
12/10/23, Sahuarita District Auditorium, 3 p.m. Doors open at 2:20
Music for jump starting and enhancing your holiday spirit!
Holiday Portraits Sean O’Laughlin
Concerto in Bb, Movement 1 G. F. Handel arr. for harp and band
***Guest Artist: Danielle Swarz, harp***
Evening Snow at Kambara Julie Giroux
Chirstmas Intrada Alfred Reed
C’est Noel Andre Jutrus
Christmas On Broadway arr. John Higgins
***Featuring twelve members of the Green Valley Community Chorus***
Fantaisia on a 13th Century Carol James Hosay
A Rollicking Hanukkah Randall Standridge
A Canadian Brass Christmas Henderson and Cable
In The Christmas Mood (Big Band Style) John Wasson
Sleigh Ride Leroy Anderson
Exotic Sounds From Far Away
1/21/23, Sahuarita District Auditorium, 3 p.m.
Tour the world with us! This concert features a brand new work commissioned by the GVCB Inc. composed by Mark Wolfram. As always, our musical selections are chosen for their quality, variety, and high level of musical interest. 1st trombonist and composer extraordinaire James Parcel arranged the brilliant Espana by Chabrier for our band, the 2nd premiere for this concert!
World Premier of a commissioned work for GVCB Mark Wolfram
Molly On The Shore Percy Grainger
Bookmarks From Japan Julie Giroux
Persis Overture James Hosay
Mount Fuji and Kinrhuzan
Finlandia (chorale) Jean Sibelius
Valdrez March Johannes Hanssen
Espana Chabrier arr. James Parcel
Africa: Ceremony, Ritual and Dance Robert Smith
Big Band Spectacular John Higgens
Dance The Night Away
3/3/24, Sahuarita District Auditorium, 3 p.m.
I’ll bet you won’t keep your feet still at this concert! Music and dance are so closely related and grew up side by side. I promise you will leave the auditorium feeling renewed and full of joy.
Cloud Dancing Richard Saucedo
Havanna Nights Randall Standridge
Border Dance Jack Stamp
Libertango Astor Piazolla
***Guest Tango Artists***
Suite Of Old American Dances (selected movements) Robert Russell Bennett
New World Symphony (theme) Antonin Dvorak
Four Scottish Dances (selected movements) Malcolm Arnold
Tribute To Elvis James Christensen
Dance The Night Away David Rudloff
A Walk On The Wild Side!
Sahuarita District Auditorium, 4/14/24
Featuring Guest Pianist Eileen Prager Perry Schwartz performing Rhpasody In Blue. Music has been said to have the capability of calming the savage beast. In this concert we will strive to excite your passions and ignite wild visions and dreams! We will serve up a most interesting variety of unusually wonderful musical selections.
Where Lark And Eagle Never Flew James Curnow
Incantation and Dance John Barnes Chance
House Of The Rising Sun arr. Bill Holcolmbe
The Ringmaster March John Mackay
Quiet City Aaron Copland
Rhapsody In Blue George Gershwin
Eileen Prager Perry Schwartz, piano soloist
Stars and Stripes Forever J.P. Sousa
Sincerely,
John Snavely
Biography
John Snavely, affectionately know as “Dr. John,” earned his doctorate in music at the University of Arizona. He began his conducting career when he founded the Evening Wind Symphony in the mid-1990's at Pima Community College in Tucson. Now the ensemble is Sonora Winds and John is director emeritus after twenty years of his leadership. In the mid 2000's GVCB board members came to a Sonora Winds concert, saw him conduct Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, and hired him to be their musical director. As a high school senior, John won an audition and performed with the American Youth Performs Orchestra in Carnegie Hall under the baton of Carmen Dragon. He performed all summer in 1971 with the first Disneyland All American College Band. John is a member of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra where he won an audition to play clarinet and bass clarinet in 1969, his first year at the University of Arizona. He has also performed with the Phoenix Symphony and Flagstaff Summer Festival orchestra and was principal clarinetist with the Tucson Pops Orchestra. His doctoral lecture recital, Benny Goodman's Commissioning Of Clarinet Concertos, was performed for the International Clarinet Society's Clarfest in the summer of 1991, and then again for the British Society of Clarinetists and Saxophonists in Ripon, England during their 1993 summer meeting. John toured Arizona, Mexico and Puerto Rico as an artist roster member of the Arizona Commission On The Arts with the Sonora Quartet (saxophones) and his own ensemble Concertissimo. He performed for a decade with the Arizona Musicfest in Carefree, Arizona and performed Ibert's Concertino as alto saxophone soloist with the orchestra. His career includes woodwind, music education and music history teaching at Pima College, University Of Arizona, and Black Hills State University. He was program director and instructor of the Tucson Symphony's Young Composer Project for seven years in the early 1990's enabling middle and high school students to compose works and hear them played by the Tucson Symphony Chamber Orchestra. John assisted in founding Opening Minds Through The Arts for the Tucson Unified School district and co-authored a major grant from the U.S. Department of Education, funding the program for it's first three years. His current teaching position is as an Arts Integration Specialist at Howell Elementary. John for thirty years was director of childrens' and youth music at St. Mark's Presbyterian Church in Tucson. He resides in Green Valley with his wife Carol West.
