Tri-County Symphonic Band highlights 20th century composers

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MATTAPOISETT - Tuba player Stephen Dumaine joined the Tri-County Symphonic Band Sunday afternoon (Feb. 1) in the Gilbert D. Bristol Auditorium, Old Rochester Regional High School to celebrate the music of three prominent and prolific composers of the 20th century: Percy Aldridge Grainger (Australian; 1882-1961), George Gershwin (American; 1898-1937) and Edward Gregson (English; born 1945).

The concert, titled “Grainger, Gershwin and Gregson,” began with Gregson’s energetic opus Prelude for an Occasion. Selections from Gershwin’s all-American opera Porgy and Bess followed. The first half of the program concluded with Grainger’s iconic Lincolnshire Posy. This six-movement cornerstone of the modern symphonic band repertoire was described by the composer as a “musical wildflower.”

A setting of the Irish Tune from County Derry, also by Grainger, began the second half of the concert. Dumaine performed the Gregson Tuba Concerto.

Tri-County Symphonic Band Music Director Philip Sanborn conducts the band with guest tuba player Stephen Dumaine Sunday in the auditorium of Old Rochester Regional High School.

“This piece is cleverly crafted to demonstrate the virtuosity of the soloist and the various sonorities and textures of the band,” Tri-County Symphonic Band Music Director Philip Sanborn said.

Dumaine joined the tuba section of the Tri-County Symphonic Band to perform John Steven’s tuba quartet, Dances.

The concert concluded with an arrangement entitled Symphonic Gershwin, highlighting excerpts from An American in Paris, Rhapsody in Blue and Cuban Overture.

Dumaine is proof positive that persistence pays, Sanborn said.

“Each major orchestra employs just one tuba player full-time, making the openings few and far between,” Sanborn said. “Persevering against those who told him he couldn’t make a living as a tuba player, a year in which he had no professional musical employment (practicing on his own throughout that time) and 21 auditions, he has become the principal tuba of the National Symphony Orchestra.”

Dumaine grew up in Burrillville, R.I., and during his high school years he was a member of the Greater Boston Youth Symphony, winning a concerto competition to appear as soloist with them when he was 18. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and was principal tuba in Spain’s Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia during the 1995-96 season. Dumaine then returned to the United States, where his orchestral experience includes positions with the New World Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, and the Alabama Symphony, and substitute work with the New York City Ballet Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. National and international festival experience includes Tanglewood, Aspen, National Repertory Orchestra, SHIRA Festival in Israel, and Pacific Music Festival in Japan.