SMC Emeritus Concert Band to Feature Marimba Music

By Lookout Staff

December 7, 2018 -- A performance this month by Santa Monica College’s Emeritus Concert Band will be tinged with the sounds of marimabas, concert organizers announced this week.

The concert on Sunday, December 16, at The Broad Stage will feature guest artists Masanga Marimba Ensemble, a group renowned for its performances of popular and traditional music from Latin America and Africa.

Yosuke Miyoshi will conduct the Emeritus Band, while the ensemble is led by CSU Northridge Professor of World Music Dr. Ric Alviso, who is also on the SMC music faculty.

The free concert "will showcase a variety of mallet percussion instruments," organizers said.

Concert highlights also include a performance on solo marimba by Adriana Harrison, a high school senior from Corona, California, of “You're So Cool” from the movie "True Romance" .

Jonathan Schlitt, a graduate student in percussion at UCLA, will play marimba on the second movement of Alfred Reed's “Concertino for Marimba and Winds.”

And Dr. Yuri Inoo, professor of percussion at University of Redlands and Occidental College, will play xylophone on “The Golden Age of the Xylophone.”

Composed of of “mostly retired” persons -- some in their eighties and nineties -- the Emeritus Band was founded in 1968 and is made up of brass, woodwinds and percussion.

Some members have played for four decades with the band which has included a father and son duo, an aerospace engineer, an emergency room physician and retired teachers, well as former members of military bands and former leaders of school bands.

"The variety of musical and life experience that each band member brings to the group fuels an environment of ongoing inspiration," organizers said.

The concert band boasts a musical library of more than 800 arrangements, ranging from John Phillip Sousa marches and Broadway show tunes to rock and roll.

Seating for Sunday's concert is on a first-arrival basis. There is ample free parking on the premises.

The band is part of Santa Monica College’s Emeritus program, established in 1975 to offer free classes and special programs to older adults.

The Broad Stage is located at the SMC Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th Street at Santa Monica Boulevard.

For information, visit www.smc.edu/emeritus or call (310) 434-4306.