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Costumed Audience Slips into Character at Creepy Concert
Published on October 28, 2024 - 5 p.m.
“Spooktacular,” Southwestern Michigan College’s Halloween-themed fall band concert Oct. 25, lived up to its name and then some.
A 16-month-old toddler vigorously conducted the Symphonic Band for the Alma Mater, her baton a blur.
Director of Bands Mark Hollandsworth counted off the Jazz Ensemble, then played a trumpet solo as vampire Count Dracula.
Jude Skinner, 12, from Niles, looked ready to sail off on a sea of green aboard a yellow submarine dressed as a shimmering jellyfish — one of three finalists chosen by audience applause as costumes paraded across the stage in the theatre of the Dale A. Lyons Building.
The other finalist was Joseph Odenwald, 5, as Olaf from Disney’s “Frozen.”
But the show-stealer leading the band was Adelyn Pullins of Eau Claire, whose mother, Skylar, was playing flute. Her dad, Tyler, held Adelyn in his arms and kept adjusting the cowboy hat so the girl squirming to the beat of her own drum could see.
“I just knew she was going to be the star of the show,” the proud papa said.
Where’s Waldo? Playing tuba. Mike Petersen, a retired band director, was judged the best costume among the musicians on stage.
Before the audience filed into the heavily-decorated theatre, they trick-or-treated through the Lyons Building halls.
The Jazz Ensemble performed “How High the Moon,” featuring trombonists Aliya Leavitt of Paw Paw and Sam Crago of Watervliet.
“Autumn Leaves” spotlighted top banana Isaiah Morris of Elkhart on alto saxophone and Joseph Rizzo of Niles on tenor saxophone.
Leavitt, a second-year music major, soloed on “’Round Midnight” before the Jazz Ensemble closed with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” featuring saxes Morris on alto, Rizzo on tenor and Jasmin Garcia of Hartford on baritone.
Following costume judging and Hollandsworth’s arrangement of Robert Briggs’ “Here’s to Thee,” the Symphonic Band closed the program with Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” “Autumn,” “The Overture from the Wizard of Oz” and the unique “Voodoo.”
Daniel Bukvich composed “Voodoo” to challenge performers to listen to each other — by dousing the lights.
The 1984 piece is meant to be performed from memory, without a conductor.
It is as much a theatrical event as a piece of music, calling for the use of flashlights, arm waving, chanting, singing, blowing into brass mutes, surrounding the audience and playing on parts of wind instruments, such as mouthpieces, trombone slides and trumpets, with tuning slides removed.
