MVMS to host UMaine Symphonic Band

MEXICO -- As part of the 2011 concert tour, the UMaine Symphonic Band will be performing a free concert on Thursday, April 14 at the Mountain Valley Middle School.

The hour-long spring concert will begin at 7 p.m. in the gymnasium. Prior to that concert, members of the MVMS band will entertain.

MVMS Music Director Dan Labonte, who invited the band here, noted that this is important for teaching lifelong learning skills to his students. He said the band will arrive at the school around 3:20 p.m., when the school will provide a meal for them.

Prior to performing here, the band, sponsored by the Univ. of Maine School of Performing Arts, will play that morning at the Jay Middle School. The tour includes three stops on April 13, three more two days later, and concludes with a final concert in Sanford on April 16.

The Symphonic Band is a group of 60+ aspiring instrumentalists chosen from students of all academic disciplines.

Each semester membership in this fine organization is determined by rigorous auditions under the direction of Professor Curvin Farnham.

The Symphonic Band performs several times each year on campus and throughout the state. In the past few years, the band has been guest conducted by such nationally known composer/conductors as Frank Erickson, Jay Chattaway, Jerry Nowak, Anne McGinty, Francis McBeth, Commander Lewis Buckley, Robert Sheldon, and David Shaffer.

Each spring, the group tours New England representing the best UMaine has to offer.