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MC3 Band to explore more ‘Classics’ during April 3 spring concert at the Clayton Center

March 20, 2025

Maryville College’s MC3 Band will continue its exploration of “Band Classics, Old and New,” when the ensemble performs its spring concert on April 3 at the Clayton Center for the Arts on the MC campus.

“Our program is varied and should inspire the community in a spirit of unity,” said Jay Romines,  musician and director of the 33-year-old MC3 Band.

For a quarter-century, Romines has served as the band director at Knoxville Catholic High School (KCHS) and has taught band in various communities from Huntsville, Alabama, to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he also served as the saxophone instructor at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. Before accepting the position at KCHS, he was the assistant director and saxophone instructor for the University of Tennessee Pride of the Southland Band, and he’s been the adjunct saxophone instructor at Maryville College for several years. 

The MC3 Band spring concert program, he said, is built on a foundation of works by English composer and arranger Gustav Holst and composer/arranger Omar Thomas. Works on the bill include: “On the Quarter Deck March,” by Kenneth Alford; “Greensleeves,” arranged by Albert Reed; “Second Suite in F” by Holst; “Come Sunday” by Thomas; and “My Favorite Things,” originally written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for “The Sound of Music” and arranged by Paul Murtha into a jazzy waltz.

The MC3 Band was established in 1992 by the late Dr. Larry Smithee, and Romines took the reins at the beginning of the 2022-23 academic year. MC3 Band members include working musicians, educators, high school and college students, business professionals and retirees from throughout East Tennessee. Using a symphonic band instrumentation, the band performs repertoire from the entire scope of the wind band tradition.

“We have a talented mix of adults, and college and high school students,” Romines said. “Music certainly brings the members of the MC3 Band together, and we’re grateful to have a diverse community of performers.”

The MC3 Band spring concert will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 3, in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre of the Clayton Center. Admission is free, and the performance is open to the public.

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.”