East Meets West to Form Unique Band Event

Musical worlds will merge this weekend when hosts a band from Beijing, China, which will perform with Wootton’s Symphonic and Concert Bands. 

Beijing School No. 166 Golden Sail Wind Band has 62 young musicians, scheduled to arrive Thursday night.  There’s no time for jet lag--the American and Chinese bands will only have one hour to practice together, on Friday afternoon, before their concert Saturday at 7 p.m.

“Beijing school No. 166 [is] a high-achieving school with over 2,000 students. I visited the school when I was speaking at a conference and the principal and I set the partnership up three years ago," Wootton principal Dr. Michael Doran said. "We have visited during the spring and they have sent students to us close to the end of the school year. This is the first time our music programs are working together; we are already looking to expand this to Art and Science.”

Wootton’s Humanities & Arts Signature Program Coordinator Michelle A. Hanson told Patch another group of Wootton students will be sent to Beijing in 2012.  Hanson is school liaison for the sister-school program.  Wootton also has a relationship with two schools in Pinnenberg, Germany, and 11 exchange students are visiting now for two weeks, bringing more of the world to this global concert.

“We have a large music department,” said Musical Director and Band Instructor Carolyn Herman. “For this concert, 130 band students will be performing.” The concert will begin with selections from Wootton High School's Symphonic and Concert Bands, from “Red, White & Blue” (the Wootton Fight Song) to musical selections from the Cirque du Soleil show La Nouba to the Wootton Drum Line doing Cameron Willey’s “Guido Stomp.”

Then Beijing School No. 166 Golden Sail Wind Band will play Chen Qian’s “One More Cup of Wine,” with Linlin Wang conducting.  The highly regarded young conductor serves concurrently as Vice Director & Conductor of the China National Chorus, visiting professor in School of Art of Renmin University of China and visiting conductor of Guiyang Symphony Orchestra, among other roles.  The Beijing band will also perform “Fires of Mazama” by Michael Sweeney and “Night Ride Through Metropolis” by Rob Romeyn. 

Finally a band combining Rockville and Beijing musicians will perform three numbers, including a traditional Chinese folk song, closing with John Phillip Sousa’s “The Gallant Seventh” march. 

There will be three conductors for the concert: Herman, Wang and guest conductor Earl Jackson, who chairs the Performing Arts Department at Landon School in Bethesda, as well as conducting several bands there.  Jackson already has ties to China, acting as an advisor to the Beijing Band Directors Association, and as Assistant Conductor of the Beijing Wind Orchestra and the Beijing Wind Orchestra Big Band.  

The Beijing No. 166 Middle School Golden Sail Wind Band was founded in 1991. The band has won many awards: among the most recent, both the concert band and marching band won the first prize in the 4th China High Class Amateur Band Festival. The band has performed together with bands from around the world both in China and internationally.

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Wootton High School Auditorium, 2100 Wootton Parkway, Rockville. October 1 at 7 p.m. Admission is free.  Reception will follow the concert.  301-279-8581

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