Spring Music Concert

The Pacific Winds would like to invite everyone to their 15th season spring concerts this weekend.


This is the annual season-ending concert celebrating our 15th year of community band performances. The Saipan Pacific Winds community concert band has 30 members this year and is conducted by myself and Ms. Christine Nierras. We are thrilled to welcome some special guests to perform with us onstage at the Multi Purpose Center in Susupe this weekend. On Saturday evening, June 6 (6:30 pm) we are featuring the Saipan Southern High School Manta Band. This award winning ensemble will perform soundtrack music from the new Harry Potter film, a stirring version of the classic work, Alvamar Overture by James Barnes, and their signature piece which earned them a second straight Gold Award at the Tumon Bay Music Festival, "When Angels Weep" by David Shaffer. Of course, the Pacific Winds will perform as well, entertaining the audience with a mixture of jazz selections, marches, pop favorites, rock hits, and even an Irish Jig.

Tickets are just $5.00 general admission and $3.00 for students/seniors.


The Pacific Winds will deliver an encore matinee performance on Sunday afternoon, June 7th (3:30 pm) at the Multi Purpose Center. This time, they will be joined by homegrown singing talent Ms. Lori Mendez whose long awaited homecoming follows an extended period of musical study in Guam and now New York City. Her career and burgeoning reputation has spanned several continents, including performances with many of today's notable opera stars. She will perform a number of selections ranging from spirituals to opera, broadway to classical, in her much anticipated debut concert here in Saipan.

The Pacific Winds will perform many of their most requested pieces too, including music from the pop group Chicago, the Jazz Police, Ralph MacDonald's "Just the two of us" and many more favorites. Ticket prices are the same as Saturday.

To purchase advance tickets, please contact Will DeWitt at 235-1087 or email him at willdewitt@aol.com.

The Saipan Pacific Winds is a non-profit organization dedicated to giving all Saipan wind and percussion musicians the opportunity to collectively share their talents with the community through several yearly concerts and special performances. Since 1994, their founder and conductor, Mr. Will DeWitt has welcomed all who wish to play their flutes, saxes, clarinets, trumpets, drums, trombones, french horns, and tubas with other enthusiastic musicians of all ages.

194. Feeling the Beat.

"It is a matter not of traveling from one place to another, but of uncovering
the destination inside the point of departure." Steve Reich.

THE REST IS NOISE, LISTENING TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, by Alex Ross (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007) is a history of twentieth century "classical" music. And it rocks with the beat of a chaotic century. Dense with biography and cultural context, it leafs through the pages of time with a close look that is light and clear.

From Strauss and Mahler, who open the century, to Reich and Adams who close it, the sounds of street and country, oppression and rebellion move together and separately (tonally and atonally?) in a hypnotic dance. Alex Ross is brilliant, not just in explaining a complex subject, but in evoking the very essence of music with his language.

This is a great read. It has history, biography, music, culture, and clash in it.

Although there is a clear narrative element, THE REST IS NOISE, achieves something much larger, more panoramic than a trip through the decades from start to finish. Brian Eno's words on minimalism could apply equally to Alex Ross' history of music: "a drift away from narrative and towards landscape, from performed event to sonic space."

Curiously enough, the writer in me wants to rush out, and --not listen to all of the music described elegantly, not purchase the suggested listening recordings, but rather-- find and re-read Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus. And then I want to listen to the sounds of the 20th century!

127. Music of the Night

After you enjoy this weekend at the Micronesian Challenge, you can enjoy next weekend at MUSIC OF THE NIGHT.


"Music of the Night" will be held at Charley's at the Pacific Island Club on Saturday, September 1, 2007. The evening begins with the mouth-watering Magellan Room buffet at 6:00, with the program beginning at 7:00. Take advantage of ticket savings by purchasing yours in advance, through Friends of the Arts board members. Advance ticket prices are just $30.00 for Friends of the Arts adult members and $35.00 for adult non-members; children's rates are $20.00 for child members and $25.00 for child non-members (ages 4 to 11).

To purchase your tickets or for more information, call Melody Actouka at 234-5498 x 2005 or 235-1320; Susan Fishman-Tudor at 322-6302; Chuck Sayon at 322-7208; Frank Gibson at 322-3204; or Paul Dujua at PIC AT 234-7976.

97. SPLICE--A Nifty Music tool

So I don't know how to do the whole video thing. I don't even yet have a video camera, although my digital camera has a video icon on it (and I don't even know why!). I'm a Luddite at heart. But I'm a curious Luddite. So while I was looking for something totally different, I ran across this, and thought--wow, that's neat. It appeals to me, the lawyer, because it offers a legal way to add music to your videos. And it just seems technologically easy and cool. So I share, for those who might benefit from it. A video explains "Splice":





UPDATE 3/5/2008--that video no longer works, but this one does.