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VanderWeele releases Panache.
Young musicians of the Montclair Citadel, N.J. corps are set to benefit from a new musical CD, Panache, released by Eastern Territory Music Publications Bureau Director Aaron VanderWeele. All proceeds from the recording will go to the corps’ youth music programs.
VanderWeele, who previously soldiered at the Torrance, Calif., corps, is euphonium soloist of the New York staff band, and 2007 recipient of the international euphonium player of the year. In the recording’s forward he states, “I took on the responsibility of leading our YP band earlier this year and this group of very special young adults has made a profound impact on me—helping me realize the importance and beauty of giving back and mentoring. The band hosted a benefit breakfast in the spring, which raised $3,000 for youth music programs and instruments in our community. That money also enabled our group and the corps to send two brand new cornets to Salvationists in Estonia, Eastern Europe.
“It was the extraordinary efforts of these young people that became the inspiration for this special recording with Bill Way and Ted Marshall—two of the Army’s finest exponents of their respective crafts and two amazing Christian men, whom I admire and respect greatly. The recording, itself, was made possible through the generous donation of money, time and effort by family and friends.”
Dr. Ronald Holz contributed the program notes to Aaron’s new recording and he writes, “When an instrumentalist plays with ‘panache,’ the label fits if the performance exhibits a certain marked sense of style, a grand swagger, even a touch of the theatrical. That is certainly the case throughout Aaron VanderWeele’s wide-ranging program. The title track by Robin Dewhurst encapsulates that so well, providing a showcase for the euphonium’s main strengths—the ability to sing lyrically and to handle technically demanding gestures, all this in a stylistically eclectic mix.
“That eclecticism gets broadened via three types of solos shared throughout the disc: 1) SA solos from the 1930s, the first peak in such technical display pieces; 2) Classical repertoire both for the instrument and in transcription; and 3) A larger number of generally short song arrangements of both sacred and secular origin. I trust and hope that an entire new generation of musicians will be encouraged by this fine example of both excellent playing and captivating literature.”
The CD is available through Resource Connection (shop.salvationarmy.org) and online at www.nysb.org.