Amanda Crouse
A&E Editor
On Sunday, March 9, the Scot Symphonic Band held its first spring concert, “Beside the Golden Door,” in McGaw Chapel. In an effort to demonstrate the cultural impact of immigrant artistry, all of the pieces played in the performance were composed by musicians who either were immigrants, or whose parents immigrated to the United States.
The Wooster Pipe Band began the concert with a pair of marches in 3/4 time: “The Bloody Fields of Flanders” by John McLellan and “The Siege of Dubrovnik” by Ryan Canning. A series of 2/4 strathspeys and 6/8 marches were bookended by some more traditional bagpipe fare: “The Banjo Breakdown” and John Newton’s “Amazing Grace.”
Following the Wooster Pipe Band, the Scot Symphonic Band — led by director of bands and professor of music Jeffrey D. Gershman — took the stage. “Kirkpatrick Fanfare,” a high-spirited musical romp by Andrew Boysen, Jr., was the band’s first piece. The air of liveliness conjured by its rumbling brass and lilting woodwinds was followed aptly by a rendition of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Italian Polka,” arranged by Elena Roussanova Lucas.
Martin Zwergel ’26 played a tenor saxophone solo in the next piece, “Embraceable You,” by George Gershwin and arranged by Warren Baker. The band’s cover of “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin (arranged by Erik W.G. Leidzén) featured a vocal solo by Ethan Yoder ’25.
The band performed four more songs, including “Seventy Six Trombones” by Meredith Willson from the musical “The Music Man,” which abruptly bled into the piece “MARCH!” by Jennifer Jolley, a reflection on the divide between North and South Korea and the Korean War. This piece featured the percussion section heavily, especially towards the end of the song — during which the other sections gradually stopped playing their instruments, started humming and walked off stage.
“John and Jim,” by Viet Cuong, was a recently-commissioned piece dedicated to John Arthur and Jim Obergefell, whose marriage led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States. The Scot Band ended the concert with composer William Shield’s holiday classic “Auld Lang Syne,” which was performed alongside the pipe band.
