For the members of the Caltech-Occidental Concert Band, international adventure began with an email. "I got an email from a tour agency in Canada, offering the band a chance to go to China," recounts William Bing, director of bands at Caltech—and for what seemed like an impossible-to-ignore price: considerably less than the cost of the band's trip to play at Carnegie Hall in 2008.
"The group had a wonderful time at Carnegie Hall," says Bing, who has been steering the Caltech Jazz and Concert Bands for more than 35 years. During his tenure, the bands have performed for thousands of people, and recently, the jazz bands performed for a standing-room-only crowd in Caltech's Beckman Auditorium.
Playing at Carnegie Hall "was the experience of a lifetime—and just long enough ago that we forgot how much work it is to take an ensemble on the road, " Bing says, so he and the concert band had been looking for another destination that would also be "special and memorable." He quickly realized that the trip to China—which would include a performance at the Great Wall—fit the bill perfectly.
Fifty-four of the band's members will be taking the China trip, scheduled for March during spring break. The tour, which will cost about $1700 per person, will include visits to the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, the Beijing Zoo, venues from the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and other tourist attractions.
In addition to the performance at the Great Wall, the band will play at a venue in Beijing. The program will consist primarily of the music of American composers such as George Gershwin. The band also commissioned a work by Caltech alumnus Leslie Deutsch (PhD '80), chief technologist for the Interplanetary Network Directorate at JPL. The featured vocal soloist for the tour will be Caltech alumna Kjerstin Williams (BS '00, MS '02, PhD '06), who also sang with the bands at their Carnegie Hall concert.
The Caltech-Occidental Band, which rehearses just one night a week, includes Caltech students, staff, faculty, and alumni, joined by musicians from JPL and Occidental College. Musicians at all skill levels play and perform with the band. Auditions for the concert band are "laid back," Bing says. "Sometimes band directors are very specific about skill levels, but I like to think of the Caltech concert band being available to anyone who wants to play. The bands at Caltech are composed of people who are enthusiastic about music."
If you would like to help the Caltech-Occidental Band by donating to its China Trip Fund, please visit www.makeagift.caltech.edu or contact Caltech's Annual Giving Programs at (626) 395-6323. Thank you.
Written by Kathy Svitil