Bettendorf Park Band Closes Its Season With The Favorites
It’s time for Bettendorf Park Band to give you its 2016 mixtape.
The band will end its 48th season with a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Veteran’s Memorial Park, Bettendorf and the show, as per tradition, will be a favorites gig featuring the band members’ favorite pieces from throughout its year.
“We traditionally do at the end of each season a favorites concert that is pieces that have been voted on by the members of the band as their favorites and it’s put together and that’s what we’re having this Friday, it’s a tradition we’ve done for many years,” said Sean Talbot, associate director of Bettendorf Park Band for two seasons, who has also played in the group a total of five years. “These are pieces that the band voted on, pieces we’ve played throughout our season that were their favorites. We’re doing pieces like Gershwin’s symphonic portrait, a ‘West Side Story’ medley, ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz,’ among others. Also, some Sousa, which is always a staple of a good summer concert, of course.”
“It’s our favorites concert, so the band is always really into this concert because it’s music they’ve selected from what we’ve played throughout the year, and that’s always fun,” said Brian Hughes, director of the Bettendorf Park Band for the past two seasons. “I like the diversity of music, we play a lot of different types of music for people to enjoy.”
The end of the season is bittersweet, both said.
“It’s nice and it’s nice to take a short break, in about a month we’re going into our 49th season, we’ve already started making some plans to celebrate our 50th season,” Talbot said. “We’re pretty much a 12 month a year band, we go all year round, we play a spring concert every year, play a fall concert every year and do our five concerts during the summer.
“The great thing it brings to the Quad-Cities is that when we start getting into music in school we’re told this is a skill we can enjoy for the rest of our lives and community bands help those people that still want an outlet to play, they can still come in and play good music and have fun with tier fellow musicians,” Talbot said, as the park band features a revolving cast of players usually around 50 members.
It’s also a treat for local residents to come check out.
“It’s free, it’s family oriented, it’s in a beautiful location there in the bandshell and we appreciate everyone willing to come down,” Talbot said. “If people are looking for an enjoyable, free event where they can hear some wonderful music on a beautiful night, we offer the perfect evening for you.”
For more information on the band and the event, see http://www.bettendorf.org/department/division.php?fDD=3-306.
