United States Coast Guard Band trombonist Musician First Class Karna Millen will join Music Director and Principal Conductor Philip Sanborn as the Tri-County Symphonic Band performs music of epic battles and historic truces entitled “War and Peace” on Sunday, February 1 at 3:00 pm at the Old Rochester Regional High School in Mattapoisett.
The first half of the program will start with John Philip Sousa’s “Bullets and Bayonets” march reflective of the trenches of World War I. From there, the band will perform the “Blue and the Gray,” a Civil War suite by American composer Clare Grundman. Music from the award-winning movie Saving Private Ryan is next with the somberly haunting “The Hymn to the Fallen” by John Williams. Concluding the first half of the concert is an arrangement of Jean Sibelius’ uplifting and joyful opus, “Finlandia.” “Toccata Marziale,” Ralph Vaughan Williams’ cornerstone of the English wind band repertoire, begins the second half of the program. Next, MU1 Karna Millen offers a virtuosic tour-de-force for trombone written by the romantic German composer Ferdinand David. David’s “Concertino” displays MU1 Millen’s rhapsodic vocal qualities on the instrument as well as her superb technical rapidity. The concert will conclude with the ever poignant and exhilarating “1812 Overture” by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Musician 1st Class Karna Millen, trombone, joined the United States Coast Guard Band in 2009. Originally from Edina, Minnesota, her early trombone training came from her father, also a professional trombonist. Currently the second trombonist of the Albany Symphony, she is an active orchestral, chamber, and freelance musician throughout New England. In Boston, she has played with the Symphony, Pops, Esplanade, Ballet, and Opera Orchestras, and was a two-time Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. MU1 Millen is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, and her principal teachers include Norman Bolter, Douglas Wright, and Ron Barron.
There will also be a celebration at intermission marking the 95th birthday of original member (joined in 1962), trumpet player Edith Pliskin.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for students, and children 12 and under are admitted free of charge. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the Symphony Music Shop in Dartmouth and The Bookstall in Marion. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door. Please visit http://tricountysymphonicband.org/ for more details.