Cartoons and classics, movies and patriotism shared the stage Thursday night as the Sky View Concert Band and Symphonic Band performed for a large audience. Each band played two songs and then combined together to perform two songs in honor of Veterans Day.

The Concert Band began the night with Jubilant Tribute by Barry Kopetz. It’s catchy song with syncopated rhythm. They followed with Cartoon Symphony arranged by Larry Clark. It was a great mashup of Looney Tunes, Flinstones, Jetsons, Simpsons, Animaniacs and more favorite cartoon themes.

Then first swap as the Concert Band exited the stage and changed places with the Symphonic Band who were all sitting in the audience — instruments in hand — waiting for their turn. After a lot of chair shuffling the Symphonic Band began with Farandole by George Bizet. According to Wikipedia, “The farandole is an open-chain community dance popular in the County of Nice, France.”

Their second song was Young Person’s Guide to John Williams as arranged by Jay Bobcook. It included themes from Harry Potter, E.T., Indiana Jones and more.

It was time for one more big switch. Randall Beach, the Sky View Band Director, explained that on Wednesday “the band performed two numbers on the [veterans] program, all together, the Symphonic Band and Concert Band combined. We really want to share those two numbers with you this evening. Which requires us to see if we can fit everyone on the stage — which is going to be a bit of a feat.”

They did it and Beach introduced the two numbers. The first was Salute To America’s Finest arranged by Paul Lavender. “It is a collection of all the songs from each branch of the military — the Army, the Navy, the Coast Guard, the Marines and the Air Force,” said Beach. “Yesterday we were able to play this selection and honor veterans attending that served in each of the branches of those military units.”

“A lot of students commented that we play this similar song in our parade in the summer,” he continued. “They said, ‘You know, when it’s associated with the parade, I don’t know that I really like this song very much. But yesterday [at the veterans program] that was fun to play.’”

“And it really was, they did a great job, it was a lot of fun playing — to honor those veterans.”

Their second song was an arrangement by Jack Bullock of America The Beautiful. “We really had a wonderful experience at [the veterans] assembly,” said Beach. “Hopefully we can share a little of that with you and inspire you to contemplate a little about the incredible country we live in, the freedoms we enjoy, and what a great blessing it is to be here.”

The bands did a wonderful job and you can listen to some of their songs in the links below. Too soon, the bands finished both numbers to loud applause and shouts from the audience.

Randall Beach started teaching at Sky View in January of this year. As USU graduate who left Cache Valley 20-years ago, he said they jumped at the opportunity to come back. “We’re real excited to be here,” he exclaimed. “We love it here. The students are wonderful, the administration is wonderful, the parents and families are fabulous. It’s a really great place.”

Sky View Symphonic Band

Sky View Concert Band

∗ Principle Chair

Concert Excerpts

• Cartoon Symphony, arranged by Larry Clark, performed by the Sky View Concert Band (3.6MB MP3)
• Young Person’s Guide to John Williams, arranged by Jay Bocook, performed by the Sky View Symphonic Band (5.8MB MP3)
• Salute to America’s Finest, arranged by Paul Lavender, performed by the Sky View Combined Bands (3.5MB MP3)
• America The Beautiful, arranged by Jack Bullock, performed by the Sky View Combined Bands (3.0MB MP3)