Group was started in Hillsborough with just six members
The Raritan Valley Symphonic Band, which organized in 1983 as the Hillsborough Community Band with a mere six members, will present its 30th anniversary concert on Sunday, April 21, at 3 p.m. at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, 600 Garretson Road, Bridgewater. Admission is free.
Founded in 1984 by Dr. Anthony Isch, former director of bands at The College of New Jersey, the RVSB has grown in both size and caliber to be recognized as one of the state’s premier volunteer symphonic bands.
Presently, the band has more than 100 members drawn from central New Jersey and the surrounding areas. With a repertoire from classics to Broadway, the RVSB brings together amateur and professional musicians, conductors, guest artists and audiences.
The band will perform a concert titled “Anniversaries & Remembrances.” The band will play “Pineapple Poll,” Suite from the Ballet, based upon the music of Arthur Sullivan, arranged by Charles Mackerras, as well as Percy Grainger’s’ “Irish Tune From County Derry.” Featured songs will also include “Post-Bellum Rhapsody” and “Elegy for a Young American.”
The band will perform works that also are celebrating milestones in 2013, such as selections from the musical “The Phantom of the Opera,” which opened on Broadway 25 years ago. Another piece is Grieg’s “Peer Gynt Suite,” since Ibsen’s original play opened 150 years ago.
For the anniversary program, the RVSB will feature its own musicians as soloists. Principal flutists Marissa Fleming and Carter Dreves will highlight their advanced technique as they perform “Andante and Rondo” by Franz Doppler.
This concert will also feature a euphonium solo by David P. Linton Jr. He will be showcased in “An American Portrait” by Lewis J. Buckley. Saxophonist Melissa Santamaria will be featured in “Serenade for Solo Alto Saxophone and Band” by Frank Bencrisutto.
Hillsborough residents Marci Oslick (flute), Audre Morrison (trumpet), Gary Smith (French horn) and soloist Carter Dreves (flute) are long-time members of the Raritan Valley Symphonic Band.
Prior to the anniversary concert, the RVSB will be honored at the Hillsborough Township Committee meeting on Tuesday, April 9, where Mayor Frank DelCore will present the band with a proclamation. The band has also received proclamations from the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders, Somerville Borough and Raritan Borough.
Thirty years ago the RVSB was founded by Dr. Anthony Isch as an offering of the Jointure for Community Adult Education. Dr. Isch conducted the band from inception in 1983, through 1998 and a membership of more than 80 musicians.
As more members came from communities other than Hillsborough, the name was changed to the Raritan Valley Symphonic Band.
Dr. Isch is a retired professor of music from The College of New Jersey, where he served as band and wind ensemble director for 20 years. He has served as an adjudicator and massed band conductor, lecturer and guest conductor for countless music festivals and programs in the tri-state area. He led the RVSB until his retirement in 1998.
Dr. Jerry Rife directed the RVSB from 1998 through 2001. Dr. Rife is professor of music at Rider University in Lawrenceville, where he teaches music history courses and is the director of bands. He has been the chairman of Music in the Fine Arts Department since 1984 and taught graduate-level musicology courses at Westminster Choir College in Princeton. Dr. Rife is presently the conductor and artistic director of the community band, The Blawenburg Band.
Dr. William Berz was the conductor from 2001 through 2005. Dr. Berz is chair of the department of music at Rutgers University. He has conducted a wide variety of performance ensembles and is conductor of the Rutgers Wind Ensemble and Rutgers Symphony Band.
This concert is made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and administered by the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission through the State/County Partnership Local Arts Program. The band is sponsored by the Jointure for Community Adult Education and by contributions from local businesses, corporations, foundations and private citizens.
For information about the concert, becoming a sponsor, to request assistance for persons with disabilities, or to inquire about joining the band, consult the website at www.rvsb.org, or call 908-359-3136.