MAIDEN, N.C. - The Newton-Conover Area Community Band’s annual end-of-season concert will be at 3 p.m. in the Betty Blackburn Auditorium at Maiden High School in Maiden on Sunday, March 26. The concert is free and open to the public. This project is supported by a grant from the United Arts Council of Catawba County.

The Jazz Band, led by Nickey Horner, Band Director at Maiden High School, will lead the concert off. They will be performing “Big Band” style arrangements of One O’clock Jump, Blue Skies, When I Fall In Love, Old Devil Moon, They Can’t Take That Away from Me, and Get It On.

The Concert Band, led by Ted Neely and Haskew Smith, is second on the program and will perform Fanfare (from Portraits) by Colonna, Variations on an English Folk Song by Claude T. Smith, Bacchanale (from the Opera, Samson and Delilah) by Saint-Seans (arranged by Hubbell), Lightning Fingers by Henry Fillmore (arranged by Foster), Shenandoah by Frank Ticheli, More Cowbell! (a medley of classic rock and pop tunes) arranged by Brown, and the Washington Post March by John Phillip Sousa.

Lightning Fingers is a clarinet feature composed by Fillmore in 1930. Our feature clarinetist is Mr. Michael Haynes. Michael is Vice President of Operations for the CampBo Bojangles franchise group based in Chesterfield, South Carolina. He studied clarinet with Dr. Douglas Miller while attending Appalachian State University.

The Newton-Conover Area Community Bands welcome players of all ages and experience levels, from high school students to those with decades of experience. Members are not just from Catawba County. Some members are from as far away as Boone, N.C. The Newton-Conover Area Community Concert and Jazz Band first performed in 2005 during the Sesquicentennial celebration of the City of Newton.