In 2016, Rochelle Township High School band director Ron Duval introduced a new generation to the music of Queen via the Hub Marching Band Competition Show.
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ROCHELLE — In 2016, Rochelle Township High School band director Ron Duval introduced a new generation to the music of Queen via the Hub Marching Band Competition Show.
In 2019, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a biopic about the band (grossing in excess of $600 million) claimed four 2019 Academy Awards for best actor, best film editing, best sound editing and best sound mixing. Coincidence? We don’t think so.
In the meantime, Duval has been working closely with choral director Andrew Evangelista. The pair has developed a long term plan. This week, they will premiere the first product of this collaboration, a combined band and Choral Pops concerts on Thursday and Friday evenings.
The concerts will feature music from American musicals. From ‘Show Boat’, the genesis of the American musical, to ‘Hamilton’ today, everyone has their own idea of which is the quintessential American musical. Incidentally a musical is any show in which the score advances or illuminates the plot.
The combined band and Choral Pops concert will showcase the junior and senior band, concert choir, fresh/soph band, men’s voice class and women’s choir.
“The concert choir will perform Frederick Loewe’s ‘If I Ever Leave You,’ the men’s voice and women’s choir will sing the songs of the Beatles (Hello, Goodbye; Ticket to Ride, Penny Lane, and Can’t Buy Me Love),” Evangelista said.
The junior and senior and concert choir will feature the music of Richard Rodgers. The fresh/soph band and junior/senior bands will combine for music from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera” and Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s songs from “Hairspray.” The Jazz Band will perform post-concert.
Doors open at RTHS at 6:45 p.m. Thursday and Friday nights with the concert to begin at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $5 for adults and $3 for students and senior citizens.