SUNDAY, July 24 CONCERTS @ 3:30 and 7:30 p.m.

Director Dr. Donald Moely announced The St. Joseph Municipal Band continues the 2005 summer season with its normal set of double concerts on Sunday, July 24th , at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. The July 24th concerts, the 6th of 13 double concerts scheduled for the season, will feature the "Lake Effect Jazz Big Band," and Stacie Detgen, principal French horn of the band, who will guest conduct two compositions.

The concert begins with Sousa’s "Atlantic City Pageant," written in 1927 at the request of the Atlantic City, New Jersey mayor at the time, Anthony Ruff. The Atlantic City Beauty Pageant contest was the forerunner of the Miss America Pageant. This is followed by "Jubilant Prelude," composed by Alfred Reed, one of America’s most prolific and frequently performed composers.

Next the band features Stacie Detgen, principal French Horn of the band, who will guest conduct two compositions with the band. STACIE DETGEN is in her 17th year of teaching instrumental music education and her 12th year at Charlotte Middle School. She is a native of Buchanan, MI. Stacie is a graduate of Michigan State University and has a Master of Music Education degree from VanderCook College of Music in Chicago. This is her 25th year of membership with the St. Joseph Municipal Band. She has been a member of the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Lansing Concert Band, has soloed with the Meridian Community Band, and has been featured with the MSU Alumni Touring Band traveling in Europe. She is active in performing with Gazebo Brass Quintet and solos and participates in the Charlotte Lawrence Avenue United Methodist Church orchestra and brass choir. Ms. Detgen will conduct "Grays Harbor March" by Steve Hodges and "Lament and Tribal Dances" by Michael Sweeney.

The band’s entertainment feature for the concerts Sunday will be "The Lake Effect Jazz Big Band." THE LAKE EFFECT JAZZ BIG BAND, formed in 2000 by Vito Tenerelli and Tom Weidle, is a 20-piece jazz ensemble dedicated to preserving the music of the "sit-down," concert big band (a big band that plays music meant for listening, rather than dancing). Lake Effect strives to accurately recreate the exact, note-for-note arrangements of tunes from such classic big bands as the Stan Kenton and Count Basie orchestras, as well as modern groups like the Bob Mintzer, Frank Mantooth, and Gordon Goodwin big bands. Although the band is based in St. Joseph, its members come from all over Southwest Michigan and Northwest Indiana to rehearse nearly Tuesday night at St. Joseph High School. The band, in its fifth performance season, is currently under the direction of Christopher Keech, a 17 year member of the Municipal Band, who is band manager and saxophone section leader The band will select unique big band arrangements and will feature vocalist Michelle Bythrow, of Park City Utah.

Next the band turns to some of the famous tunes of Broadway in Warren Barker’s arrangement of "The Golden Age of Broadway." The arrangement includes, "The Wells Fargo Wagon," "Seventy-Six Trombones,’ "Standing On The Corner," "Luck Be A Lady," "If I Were A Rich Man," "Til there Was You," Matchmaker, Matchmaker," and "I Ain’t Down Yet."

The concert concludes with the "Chicago Tribune March," which was composer Paris Chamber’s most popular march, written for one of America’s leading newspapers in 1892. The Chicago Tribune was founded in 1847 and has since today become a media industry leader reaching more than 80 percent of the U. S. Households through newspaper publishing, television and radio broadcasting and the Internet Operation. It’s operations are concentrated in the nation’s major markets, including the top three, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The hour long Municipal Band concerts at the newly renovated John E. N. Howard band shell are held each Sunday at 3:30 & 7:30 p.m. and continue through Sunday, September 5 and conclude with the final set of concerts Monday, September 6, Labor Day.