Marshall Philharmonic Concert

The Marshall Philharmonic Orchestra will present its third concert of the 52nd Concert Season THIS Sunday, February 15, under the baton of Conductor Kevin Lines.  The concert will be held in the Harold L. Lickey Auditorium of Bueker Middle School in Marshall and will begin at 2:30 p.m. featuring Dr. Ron Montgomery, trumpet. Montgomery is the new Director of Instrumental Music Activities at Missouri Valley College.  This concert is graciously underwritten by Fitzgibbon Hospital and Community Bank of Marshall.

Dr. Montgomery has come to Marshall with experience serving as a band director in the Texas public schools as well as at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Missouri Southern State University, and Northwestern College.  Under his direction, the Northwestern College Symphonic Band was named “Best College Band” by Downbeat magazine in 2004.

As a trumpeter, Montgomery is a past member of the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra, the American Wind Symphony, the Kansas Brass Quintet, and founded the Xavier University Brass Quintet.

Montgomery holds a DMA in Wind Conducting from the University of Arizona, a MM in Trumpet Performance from the University of Kansas, and a BS in Music Education from Roberts Wesleyan College.

Montgomery’s family includes four generations of musicians.  Carrying on in that tradition, are his children.  Son, Austin, is a junior music education major at Baylor University and daughter, Lauren, a freshman, is majoring in music education at the University of Louisville.

Boasting a personnel list of three generations of music makers on its roster consistently, MPO promoters are honored to include Missouri Valley College and Dr. Montgomery to its collaborative musical efforts this season.

For Sunday’s program, Montgomery will perform the first movement of the Concertino for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra by Joseph Kaminski and Prayer of Saint Gregory by Alan Hovhaness.  These two selections may possibly be the most diverse compositions ever performed by an MPO soloist.  The Kaminski is a contemporary spin on a traditional violin solo using vibrant melodies sprinkled with a smattering of tonal dissonances and complex rhythm. In complete contrast, Prayer of Saint Gregory is the product of the composer’s religious opera in which Saint Gregory the Illuminator prayed reverently and faithfully in darkness after being cast into the pit of a dungeon where he was left for fifteen years.

In addition to the solo work, Conductor Kevin Lines has decided to take the audience on a musical tour including stops in Italy, Hungary, The Appalachian Mountains and finally back home to Missouri.  On Sunday’s concert, listeners will be treated to Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, Brahms’ Hungarian Dances No. 5 and 6, and Copland’s Variations on a Shaker Melody from Appalachian Spring.  The program will conclude with Missouri composer, Claude T. Smith’s, arrangement of the traditional hymn tune, “God Of Our Fathers”, in which the audience will be invited to join in to, “lead forth in beauty all the starry band.”

As always, MPO concerts are free and open to the public thanks to its supporters’ generous donations and contributions spanning over half a century of music making.  It is with great pride that this musical tradition continues.  In closing, Lines states, “Let the music play on!”