What: Long Ago and Faraway: A Musical Journey Across Space and Time
Presented by: The Cape Cod Concert Band, Tom Borning, Conductor
When: 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 12, 2025
Where: Barnstable Performing Arts Center, Barnstable High School
Admission: FREE!!
Contact: Kate Whouley: kate@capecodconcertband.org, (508) 771-4127
From the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro to the base of the Washington Monument, into the land of Oz, and over to the Tudor Court, join the Cape Cod Concert Band for Long Ago and Faraway: A Musical Journey Across Space and Time. The concert begins at 2:00 PM on Saturday, April 12, at the Performing Arts Center in Barnstable High School. Admission is free, with audience donations welcome to fund future concerts.
The program will feature a brand-new piece by the CCCB’s conductor, Tom Borning. Commissioned and premiered in October by the Tri-County Symphonic Band, Lift Off, according to the composer, “is a rock song disguised as a concert band piece.” He elaborates: “The chord changes are inspired by the music of Jimi Hendrix and the DeLeo brothers. And the power chords, often played by guitars in a rock band, are scored for the low woodwinds and brass.” With its forward-moving melodies, contemporary harmonies, and pulsing rhythms, Lift Off is the perfect piece to launch a musical tour that spans continents and cultures, and moves between present, past, and future.
Time-traveler fans will enjoy William Owen’s Tudor Sketches, a piece in three short movements that conjure up the court of Henry VIII, and Renaissance Reimagined by Brian Balmages, a 2017 composition merging courtly style with contemporary sound. Some of the place-based highlights of the tour include the majestic Legend of the Hojo, a musical depiction of the lineage of the most famous Japanese sword, by contemporary composer Christina Huss, and the quick-moving, comedic, and cancan-inducing Danse Bohémien, by Randall Standridge. Then there’s the ultimate getaway—to Oz, with Michael Brown’s arrangement of music from WICKED.
This whirlwind musical journey is presented free of charge to the Cape Cod community by the Cape Cod Concert Band, an all-volunteer 52-piece wind and percussion ensemble, conducted by Tom Borning. The Band is supported by audience donations, business sponsors, and grants from the Mass Cultural Council, the Elizabeth B. McGraw Foundation, and the Cape Cod Melody Tent.
