The Northshore Concert Band brought audience members to a world of childlike enthusiasm with its Sunday concert, “Story Tellers,” at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.
The program featured five pieces, all pertaining to the central theme of stories. Watching the performance, the band’s cohesive and expressive playing made it easy to drift into the fantasy worlds depicted by the music.
Mallory Thompson (Bienen ʼ79, ’80), who was a professor and director of bands at Northwestern until 2024, maintained her high energy and expressiveness throughout the long program.
The concert began with Adam Schoenberg’s “Rise,” which immediately established the group’s high caliber. The song kicked off with subtle mallets and piano, including multiple melodic lines that coincided to create a flowy, ambient sound. Shortly into the song, the full band carried out an impressive crescendo, ending in several satisfying brass chords to set the tone. In the song’s second part, the atmosphere shifted with a contemplative power chord that unfurled into a beautiful, bittersweet melody and ended with a peaceful layer of flute over a soft brass melody.
After “Rise,” Thompson dedicated the concert to Sandra Ellingsen, a member of the Northshore Concert Band for 35 years, who passed away last June. Ellingsen always wore pearls to concerts, Thompson said, so the entire band wore pearls to honor her.
Thompson then invited flautist Jennifer Nelson to the microphone to speak about Ellingsen. Nelson said that Ellingsen was “always looking for opportunities to use her talents to help others,” such as when the two played flute duets for charity.
The program’s uplifting nature continued with Percy Grainger’s “Children’s March: Over the Hills and Far Away.” The tune took the audience on a playful, jaunty journey that started with a simple bassoon melody, ended with a cheeky light note and seemed to go everywhere in between. The main theme was passed between sections, taking on a different personality variation each time. Bells and mallets occasionally gave the song a glistening sound while snare and brass hits made certain parts pop. At one point, band members sang, which added to the sonic depth.
To conclude the first act, the band played excerpts from the Studio Ghibli film “My Neighbor Totoro,” which was composed by Joe Hisaishi and arranged by Yo Goto. The medley began mysteriously with chimes overlaying a mystical flute solo and soon became marchlike. Funky mallets and brass hits gave some parts a jazzy or even Latinesque sound, but the dominant tone was one of fantasy and whimsy.
The band’s energy carried over and even multiplied after intermission, beginning with Martin Ellerby’s “Tales from Andersen,” which Thompson said was written to evoke the feelings of Hans Christian Andersen’s writing. This song showcased the band at its most expressive, playing into the emotional weight of the Danish author’s storytelling and mixing in some of the enthusiasm from earlier in the program with more seriousness.
To conclude the show, the group played “Excerpts from ‘Far and Away’” by John Williams, who has composed music for films such as “Star Wars,” “Jaws” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” The medley integrated Irish folk music into a cinematic saga, with soulful melodies in the winds clashing into brass hits and giving the concert a defiant conclusion.
An afternoon watching the Northshore Concert Band perform felt like an afternoon transported back in time to the simpler joys and imagination of childhood. Thompson continues to prove herself as a musical force even after retiring from the University, and her band exudes the same level of passion.
Email: [email protected]
Related articles:
— Northwestern’s first female director of bands to step down after celebratory last year
— Symphonic Wind Ensemble members reflect on first Bienen performance of the year, ‘Bells!’
— Evanston Symphony Orchestra rehearses for annual holiday concert, aims to celebrate community
