Sunday, April 26, 2026 3:30 p.m.
Cutting Hall Performing Arts Center, Palatine, IL
Palatine Concert Band’s Spring concert, Celebrating Virtuosity is an up close and personal look into what it takes to master one’s craft through an afternoon of vibrant and dynamic music. The concert highlight is a performance by the winner of Palatine Concert Band’s 2026 High School Student Soloist Contest, Oscar Soto, a sophomore at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Fanfare for Rocky by Bill Conti, arranged by Thomas Wyss, boldly opens the concert, setting the stage with triumphant brass and driving rhythms in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the movie. In the film, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), a poor small-time club boxer and loan shark debt collector from Philadelphia, gets an improbable once in a lifetime shot at the world heavyweight championship.
The spotlight then turns to flutist Oscar Soto, performing François Borne’s dazzling Carmen Fantasie, transcribed and edited by Marc Oliver, a brilliant showcase of technical mastery and lyrical beauty inspired by Bizet’s beloved opera.
Steampunk Suite by Erika Svanoe depicts various scenes that take place in a fictional alternate history that features notable people alive in the Victorian era, including Charles Ives, Marie Curie, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, P.T. Barnum and Nikola Tesla. It borrows from popular music of the time and combines it with sounds of clockwork and imagined steam technology.
The Hounds of Spring by Alfred Reed, is a beloved cornerstone of the wind repertoire in the style of early 18th-century Italian opera overtures. It captures exuberant, youthful gaiety and the sweetness of tender love found in the poem Atlanta in Calydon, written in 1865 by the English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909).
A virtuoso in her own right whose life was tragically cut short at age 24, Lili Boulanger is the composer of D’un Matin de Printemps (Of a Spring Morning), transcribed by Jack Hontz. The piece alternates between feelings of liveliness, joy, mystery, curiosity, contemplativeness, and pain.
Serenade to Spring by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, arranged by John Warrington, offers nostalgic charm in It might as well be Spring, Younger than Springtime, and I Whistle a Happy Tune from two virtuosi of American musical theater.
Music from RENT by Jonathan Larson, arranged by Jay Bocook, features selections from the iconic Broadway musical on its 30th anniversary. Loosely based on the 1896 opera, La bohème by Giacamo Puccini, the story follows of a group of young artists struggling to create a life in Lower Manhattan's East Village during the AIDS epidemic.
This program offers something for everyone—virtuosic solo performance, imaginative modern works and favorites from stage and screen. We hope you’ll join us for an afternoon that celebrates talent, artistry and the joy of live performance.
Palatine Concert Band acknowledges support from the Palatine Park District and the Illinois Arts Council. Palatine Concert Band does not discriminate on the basis of disability in admission, access to, or employment in, its programs and activities.
| Membership Opportunities The band has one opening each for Bass Clarinet and String Bass. Please contact personnel@palatineconcertband.org for more information. | Information for People with Disabilities Cutting Hall Performing Arts Center is accessible to people with limited mobility including wheelchair users and also offers assisted listening devices upon request. The phone system is TTY enabled. Fred P. Hall Amphitheater is an outdoor performance shell and stage set in a park with state of the art light and sound capabilities and a wired microphone system. It is accessible to people with limited mobility including wheelchair users. To request additional accessibility assistance, contact pr@palatineconcertband.org 21 days before your chosen concert date. |
