Category: Video Showcase

Dear Friends and Members of the LA Winds Family:

The 4^th installment of our “Summer Sounds of Your LA Winds” series features saxophone virtuoso Dale Underwood, whom the Washington Post called “the Heifetz of the saxophone.” Click on the link below to hear Dale in a spectacular performance of “A Gershwin Fantasy” with your LA Winds at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago in 2004.

Click here for “A Gershwin Fantasy”

As many of you know, Dale has performed with the Winds as recently as 2016 when we performed the beautiful “Tosca Fantasy” at Disney Hall.  The 1^st time I heard Dale perform this was in 2006 when he and Col. Arnald Gabriel collaborated with the Winds to perform Puccini’s haunting melodies along with a “tour de force” rendition of Jimmy Dorsey’s “Oodles of Noodles.” Click the links below to relive these memorable performances.

Click here for “Tosca Fantasy”

Click here for “Oodles of Noodles”

Besides these two appearances, Dale also appeared with the Winds on the summer “Concerts in Warner Park” series and soloed with us when we were featured in the 2007 Mid-Europe Band and Orchestra Festival in Schladming, Austria – one of former Governor Schwarzenegger’s favorite ski resorts!

On Saturday, August 1, you are in for a real treat with our next Summer Sounds issue: “The Magical Music of Charles Fernandez!” Our own Composer In Residence, Charles Fernandez will present some of his most exciting works performed by Your LA Winds. You don’t want to miss this!

Next, on August 15, the “Summer Sounds” series, in addition to bringing back memorable concerts from the past, will also begin to feature individual players from your LA Winds. They will be demonstrating their instruments – and giving you the chance to get to know us on an even more personal basis. These videos will also form a part of a series of presentations to be distributed to students and teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District in the fall as they utilize new and novel resources to keep music alive during these uncertain pandemic times.  We are proud indeed to partner with the LAUSD in this most worthwhile project.

If you are enjoying the Summer Sounds of Your LA Winds series, we invite you to share us with all of your friends and family by passing this email to them, and by sharing this on your favorite social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And if you missed any past issues of Summer Sounds, you can see all of the Summer Sounds videos here.

As we move forward, let me once again thank you for continued support and ask you, as always, to stay safe – wear masks, keep distance, wash hands often — as we await the day when live music doesn’t have to be heard on a phone, tablet, laptop, computer or TV!

Sincerely,

Stephen P. Piazza
Artistic Director,
Los Angeles Symphonic Winds

Dear Friends and Members of the LA Winds Family:

The third installment of the “Summer Sounds of Your LA Winds” series begins with a heartfelt video elegy to those who have been part of the on-going struggle for racial equality and the suffering brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Third Video Showcase - Elegy for Our Times

I am performing an arrangement of the Adagio movement from J.S. Bach’s g minor Violin Sonata to express the profound sadness we all feel at the tragic consequences that too often have accompanied these monumental movements and events.  In the first part of the video I’ve included photos of such well-known men, women and children as Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King Jr., Lyndon Johnson, Nina Simone, Muhammed Ali, Cecil Murray, Rodney King, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, his daughter Gianna, Martin Luther King III and his wife Arndrea, and their daughter Yolanda. I have intentionally left the 2^nd half of the video (beginning at 1:55), which deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, without specific historically recognizable figures to underscore the tragic universality of this dreaded virus.  The only exception to this is the inclusion of the famed jazz pianist and educator, Ellis Marsalis.

The second video in this third installment features two artists who, over the course of over 25 years, have helped bring your LA Winds to our current level of international recognition. Geoff Nudell and SSgt. Parker Gaims are presented in their virtuoso March 2017 performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Concert Piece No. 2 for clarinet and basset horn, op. 114. I’m sure you’ll enjoy their incredible artistry. Mendelssohn Concert Piece No. 2

And in our next installment, to be released on July 15, you’ll be dazzled by saxophonist Dale Underwood whom the Washington Post hailed as “The Heifetz of the Saxophone.”  Thanks, as always, for your continued support, and we look forward to your comments and suggestions as we prepare for our January 2021 re-opening festivities!

We’d love to hear your feedback on our Summer Sounds series.  Please send your thoughts and comments to [email protected].

Best Regards,

Stephen P. Piazza
Artistic Director,
Los Angeles Symphonic Winds

Our second installment of the “Summer Sounds of Your Los Angeles Symphonic Winds” series is an inspiring salute to the men and women who have served in the U.S. Military.

Click on the links below to hear the exciting videos we’ve entitled “Marching Along with the LA Winds.”

Or choose from the list below to view specific performances only:

1. Service Song Medley
2. Invincible Eagle
3. Bravura
4. March from 1941
5. Stars and Stripes Forever

As many of you know, the Winds have been privileged to share the concert stage both here and abroad with such distinguished military personnel as Winds alum Parker Gaims of the USMC.  Parker can be seen — long before he joined the Marines — in several of our videos.  In the coming weeks, you’ll also hear the Winds perform with Navy saxophone soloist Dale Underwood, whom the Washington Post hailed as “the Heifetz of the Saxophone.”  In this week’s video, you’ll see me leading the legendary US Army Field Band. Also this week, Col. Arnald Gabriel, former Director of the USAF band, leads the Winds in a stirring rendition of “Stars and Stripes Forever.” The LA Winds have been deeply honored to work with Col. Gabriel on a number of occasions, and we continue to show our gratitude to him for his efforts in WWII as part of the original landing force at Normandy on D Day.

We hope you enjoy this second installment of our “Summer Sounds” series, and we look forward to our next presentation which will include a very moving elegy to all those who have journeyed through the challenging times of racial inequality, global pandemics, and social struggles for justice. We’ll also revisit the stunning performance by Parker Gaims and our own Geoff Nudell of one of the virtuosic Mendelssohn duets for clarinet and basset horn.

But for now, enjoy the sights and sounds of “Marching Along with Your LA Winds!”

We’d love to hear your feedback on our Summer Sounds series.  Please send your thoughts and comments to [email protected].

Best Regards,

Stephen P. Piazza
Artistic Director,
Los Angeles Symphonic Winds

Welcome to the 1^st installment of our “Summer Sounds of Your LA Winds” series!

This week we’re featuring the 2003 video which led to our being recognized as one of the premiere community ensembles in all of America — and throughout the world!  This was our first professionally recorded video, and it led to our being selected as featured performers at the internationally acclaimed Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois.

We were the first community band west of the Mississippi to ever perform at this prestigious annual convention which attracts nearly 20,000 attendees from around the world. Ron Nelson’s exciting and hauntingly beautiful “Aspen Jubilee” is the first selection on the video, followed by the rousing “Mad Major” march by Kenneth Alford.

This will serve as a great prelude to our upcoming video “Marching Along with the LA Winds” — to be released to you, our loyal supporters, on Jun 15^th.

So just relax and click the link below to enjoy the 1^st installment of “Summer Sounds of Your LA Winds!”

• Aspen Jubilee and Mad Major March with Maestro Piazza Introduction
• Video only: Kenneth J. Alford's Mad Major March
• Video only: Ron Nelson's Aspen Jubilee

We’d love to hear your feedback on our Summer Sounds series.  Please send your thoughts and comments to [email protected].

Best Regards,

Stephen P. Piazza
Artistic Director,
Los Angeles Symphonic Winds