MC3 Band schedules chamber concert of more intimate fare for Feb. 11

Feb. 6, 2024

Poster of the spring 2024 chamber concert by the MC3 Band

For his second year at the helm of the MC3 Band, Conductor Jay Romines took the bold step of doubling the ensemble’s output.

Rather than performing the traditional two concerts per academic year — one in the spring and another in the fall — he added a second performance each semester consisting of chamber music by a smaller collective of MC3 Band musicians. Last fall’s chamber concert was a success, he said, and he expects the group’s next one — at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11, at the Clayton Center for the Arts — to follow suit.

“Small ensemble playing is always rewarding,” said Romines, now in his second year as the group’s conductor. “For the younger musicians, this can be a chance to really feel like a soloist, and for the more experienced members, an incentive to have more intense practice sessions.”

The MC3 Band was established in 1992 by the late Dr. Larry Smithee, an associate professor of music at Maryville College who directed it until his retirement in 2012. What began as a small group of mostly high school marching band veterans grew under his tenure into an ensemble of more than 60 musicians that performs multiple concerts per year and includes working musicians, educators, high school and college students, business professionals and retirees from the local community.

Today, the group — led by Romines, a saxophonist who’s taught the instrument at MC for several years and has served as the band director of Knoxville Catholic High School for almost a quarter-century — continues to perform traditional wind band compositions using symphonic band instrumentation.

The first rehearsal of the spring semester, although delayed by last month’s snow storm, was “tremendous,” Romines added, and the program for the Feb. 11 concert will feature a broad array of contemporary and classical selections, including:

  • A selection of works by playwright and composer Ricky Lombardo by the Flute Choir, which will featuring senior Daniel Vilaire ’24;
  • Astor Piazzolla’s popular tango “Oblivion,” as well as “A Picture Book Without Pictures” by the Japanese composer Masanori Taruya, both by the Clarinet Choir;
  • Three arrangements — a Baroque, a classical and a contemporary — by the ensemble’s saxophone trio, including Romines himself; and
  • Various folk arrangements, including “Shenandoah” and “Ash Grove,” by the Brass Choir.

“The fall chamber music concert went well, and the fall semester overall was great,” Romines said. “The numbers (of participants) are up, and the quality of the playing continues to improve. I think we’re all excited to get on stage and play again.”

The MC3 Band Chamber Concert will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11, in the Harold and Jean Lambert Recital Hall of the Clayton Center for the Arts. Admission is free, and the concert is open to the public. The spring performance by the full MC3 Band is scheduled for 2 p.m. April 7 in the Clayton Center’s Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre.

Maryville College is a nationally-ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges. For more than 200 years we’ve educated students to be giving citizens and gifted leaders, to study everything, so that they are prepared for anything — to address any problem, engage with any audience and launch successful careers right away. Located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville, Maryville College offers nearly 1,200  students from around the world both the beauty of a rural setting and the advantages of an urban center, as well as more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last. Today, our 10,000 alumni are living life strong of mind and brave of heart and are prepared, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”