Students, community members join musical forces for MC3 Band’s Nov. 20 fall concert
Oct. 21, 2025
Since 1992, the MC3 Band has managed to achieve something truly outstanding: Integrate members of the Maryville community and Maryville College students together in order to create a large band ensemble of more than 60 artists.
At 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre inside the Clayton Center for the Arts, the MC3 Band will showcase the combined talents of its members during their fall concert performance that is free and open to the public.
As a wind band — a band composed of symphonic band instruments — the MC3 Band works best when selections are chosen for its performances based on quality rather than programming concerts around a theme, said Jay Romines, conductor of the ensemble.
“In the old days, band music was just a transcription of orchestra music,” Romines said. “Since the 1900s, there were very few composers who wrote specifically for a band. The Eastman Wind Ensemble started in the ’60s to have music composed especially for wind bands, so there is quite a lot of band music that the general audience would not be familiar with.”
This gives concertgoers the perfect opportunity to hear new music that could very well become a favorite.
According to Romines, the fall concert will feature six selections of music from the band’s repertoire. As is tradition, the MC3 Band — officially known as the Maryville College-Community Concert Band — will open the performance with a march, followed by a more traditional selection. The band will then incorporate a brand new selection from the 20th century before performing another contemporary piece.
The group always tries to conclude its memorable music lineups with a jazz piece, Romines added. Through these songs, the band’s main highlight will be cultural differences that many composers attempt to reach and unite audiences through their performances.
The band will play a total of six songs, including:
• “Free Lance March,” by Sousa;
• “America the Beautiful,” by Samuel Ward and arranged by Carmen Dragon;
• “Halcyon Hearts,” by Katahj Copley;
• “The Low-Down Brown Get Down,” by Omar Thomas;
• “Continuum,” by Robert Buckley; and
• “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing,” by Stevie Wonder.
The fall concert will not feature any soloists, but the upcoming spring concert will, according to Romines.
The MC3 band prides itself on welcoming artists of all ages and experience, including high school students, current MC students and MC alumni.
“It’s no different conducting musicians of varying ages,” Romines said. “They are all musicians.”
The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Clayton Center box office at 865-981-8590.
— Written by McKenna Marr ’28