Top-notch music arrived in Bayfield Saturday afternoon as the United States Air Force Academy Band thrilled 500 people at the Bayfield Performing Arts Center.
The 50-plus member band performed concert music favorites, as well as show tunes from Broadway and movies. And of course some patriotic songs, starting with the Star Spangled Banner.
Six musicians from Bayfield High School joined the band for a John Philip Sousa work entitled "The National Game." In addition to being a march master, Sousa also was a baseball fan and wrote the piece in honor of the national pasttime. Wearing baseball shirts, two band members pitched and hit an imaginary ball during part of the performance, to the delight of the audience.
The students received a certificate and other Air Force memorabilia for performing with the band.
Other works included "Symphonic Metamorphosis," "Concertino in C Minor," and "First Light," a commissioned piece by David Maslanka, which has been premiering this year in honor of the 70th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force.
Capt. Shanti Simon, who conducted Saturday's performance, explained the melody's somber beginning deals with the loss and pain we all feel at various times, then the music builds to encapsulate the first light of discovering the hope that things will get better.
Three vocalists, Krista Joyce, Rachel Wilson and Tim Allums, performed pieces from the Broadway shows Wicked and Les Miserables, as well as the movie Frozen.
The Air Force has 10 bands stationed at various bases around the country, playing rock, country, jazz and band standards. The Air Force Academy Band was founded more than 60 years ago and is based today at Peterson Air Force Base. Simon joked that a bus full of Air Force recruits was behind the auditorium heading to San Antonio if anyone felt like joining up Saturday.
The audience applauded for John Rudolph, a BHS alum currently attending the academy, whose grandmother, Anne Rudolph, was in attendance.
The band was playing a tour of Western Slope communities and continued on to Alamosa for a performance on Sunday.
The Bayfield performance was sponsored by First National Bank of Durango, Bayfield Chamber of Commerce and the Pine River Times.
