Dear Friends : The Corvallis Community band is preparing its Winter Concert for Sunday, March 15, 2026, at 2 PM in the auditorium at the Ashbrook Independent School. The theme for this concert is “Out of this World,” a program designed to take you into the heavens and beyond! Dr. Tom Laster, DDS, and The Benton County Schools Credit Union are sponsors for this concert.
Included in the program is “Sirius – Shining Stars” by Japanese composer Fukushima, that evokes the
bright celestial atmosphere for Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky. We’ll take a “Journey Through Orion,” by composer Julie Giroux, who was inspired by images from the Hubble Space telescope. Russel Standridge, a popular composer for bands, takes us “To Horizons Unseen,” on a trip through the Universe. And speaking of the universe, do you remember the 1990 photo of earth taken from the Voyager spacecraft when it was 3.7 billion miles away? That was the famous “Pale Blue Dot’ that showed us our fragile home in the cosmos,. We will perform a musical interpretation of that photo.
Movies provide some of the music we associate with space travel. The hauntingly beautiful “The Inner Light” comes from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It is the theme from the episode in which Jean-Luc Picard bonds with a probe and lives another lifetime in only a few hours. This lovely arrangement features a piccolo solo. And how could we forget Superman? John Williams wrote some memorable music for that movie, and we will play a suite that incorporates several of its themes. I’m sure you’ll recognize at least some of them.
As usual our concert is free. We’ve asked band members to park across the street, so that parking near the Asbrook building will be more accessible to you. It’s also OK to park next door at the Benton County building.
2026 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Corvallis Community Band. We will be asking you to relate your memories of the band over the years. We’re working on an easy way for you to do that electronically. Watch for that in an email message soon. We are planning a birthday party for our summer concert on June 30 (the closest to our “real” birthday on July 4). Watch for information about that coming up soon, too.
Thanks, as always, for your interest in the Community Band. You’ve helped make us an institution that has endured over the years.
I hope to see you on March 15.
Sue
We value our “friends” who come to our concerts in the summer and throughout the year. We have an e-mail list to inform you about what we are doing and what volunteer opportunities we have.
E-mail List
We send out a newsletter approximately once a month, with a calendar of our concerts and information about the band. During the summer, the newsletters are a little more frequent, since we play so many concerts in June, July, and August.
If you would like to be on that list to receive Community Band News, please send your request to Sue Borden (sueborden@comcast.net). We’d like to know your mailing address and phone number, as well as your e-mail address, but the only really necessary information is your email address.
Volunteer Opportunities
From time to time, we need non-band members to help us with tasks that we often can’t do ourselves. Here’s a list of some of those:
- Ushering at indoor concerts during the academic year
- Managing sales of Band items at concerts (both summer and winter)
- Marketing – distribution of posters
- Publicity – speaking about the band at club meetings
- Expertise – help with fundraising, marketing, logistics, sound, lights
If you would like to volunteer, please contact Sue Borden (e-mail address above) who will put you in touch with our volunteer coordinator, or put you to work directly. We are always open to ideas you have, so don’t hesitate to contact us.