The "Band Together" Series
The "Band Together" series presents an expanding collection of distinguished wind ensemble repertoire, offering professional video and audio recordings, expert audition guidance, historical insights, and specialized educational resources tailored for students from elementary through collegiate levels.
An Immersive Look at American Wind Band Repertoire
Each chapter in this series provides the following content to students and educators:
- A professional video recording of the work in its entirety, demonstrating the performance standard.
- Solo video recordings outlining related audition excerpts and practice tips specific to each instrument.
- A uniquely devised curriculum handout applicable to elementary and middle school students that specifically connects classrooms to the musical selection.
- For certain works, archival recordings and historical assets are also shared as applicable to “Pershing’s Own”
Symphony in B-flat, by Paul Hindemith
In this chapter of “Band Together” (change on the hindemith landing page), we welcome you to enjoy our recent live video performance of Hindemith's Symphony in B-Flat, an educational deep dive into its instrumental audition excerpts, three curricula for general music study, and a historical view of the work's connection to The U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own."
Rocky Point Holiday, by Ron Nelson
In this chapter of “Band Together”, we welcome you to enjoy our recent live video performance of Rocky Point Holiday by Ron Nelson, an educational deep dive into its instrumental audition excerpts, and a unique curriculum for general music study.
The Why
Typically, we like to begin with why at "Pershing's Own"—but we also believe there is a time and place to allow the music and history to speak first for themselves. Now that we've given those elements a voice, here are the reasons behind the start of this new series of free educational content developed specifically for you by The United States Army Band "Pershing's Own."
Intent:
- Create high-quality, live videos of The U.S. Army Concert Band performing large-scale wind ensemble works.
- Extract challenging instrumental excerpts from each selection and create educational video content of principal players demonstrating accurate performance practice while sharing valuable discussion points.
- Develop coordinated curricula to engage Elementary and Middle school classrooms with active listening activities and thinking exercises based on the full band video recording.
- Offer multiple iterations of this package concept throughout the year, building a library of resources specific to wind band literature and accessible across multiple age groups.
Purpose:
- Establish an audio-visual legacy of the expertise and quality exhibited by The U.S. Army Concert Band.
- Create a clear guide for achieving what "right" sounds like when preparing audition excerpts.
- Develop supplemental educational resources applicable across all age groups.
- Encourage engagement between general music students and wind ensemble repertoire.
- Provide equal availability of trusted preparatory materials, regardless of access to music education and private instruction.
We intend to do more "Band Together" series projects like this one, so we hope to hear your feedback on how we did with our inaugural run and what you'd like to see included in the next iteration!
