This Week's Concert -- Burlington Iowa Municipal Band

Note from the webmaster: We update this web site at least once a week during our summer concert season. Since the program for each Sunday concert is finalized at our rehearsal on Monday evening, we generally post the week's update sometime on Tuesday. Unfortunately, if you are viewing this page on a summer Monday, what follows will undoubtedly be the information for YESTERDAY'S concert.

For those specifically SEEKING web pages from past concerts, our recent concert archives are now available online.

This week's concert will be conducted by Burlington's Jim Priebe. Long retired from his days as a band director in the Burlington schools, Jim has played trombone (and sometimes euphonium) in the band since 1965. Jim is a past president of the Muni Band Foundation's board and continues to serve as a board member. He is an active musician, playing not only in our band but in the Southeast Iowa Brass Quintet, the South Hill Brass, the Bullis-Rutter Big Band, and the Lamoine River Ramblers, a traditional jazz (think Dixieland) band based in Macomb, IL.

Jim is calling this concert the "To Infinity and Beyond" concert. Buzz Lightyear's mantra is an obvious nod to the soon-to-be-released movie Toy Story 5 but there's a reason for the "infinity" title as Jim plans to honor Dr. Edward Stone, a BHS graduate, the namesake of Edward Stone Middle School, physics professor at Cal Tech, the head of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, head of the Voyager space probe program and Mars Sojourner program and, most importantly, an alumnus of the Burlington Municipal Band!

Jim's concert falls on Father's Day and he's fulfilling a long-time desire of having as our soloist his daughter Susan Priebe Thomas. Susan is 1986 graduate of BHS. Her bachelor's degree in music education is from Truman State University in Kirksville where she double majored in flute and voice. After some years as a band and choir director, further years in the business world and having earned a doctorate degree in education, she now serves as an adjunct professor at both Truman State and Andrew Taylor Still Universities, teaching instructional design. Susan continues to be active as a musician performing both as a flutist and a vocalist in the Kirksville area.

Jim's selections will be chosen from among the following:

The Star Spangled Banner by John Stafford Smith; Bless This House by May H. Brahe, arranged by T. Conway Brown; Cosmic Wonder by Bruce W. Tippette; The Billboard March by John N. Klohr; Over the Rainbow, Susan Thomas soloist, by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg; Star Trek Through the Years, arranged by John Moss including Theme from Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, Theme from Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek - The Motion Picture; A Signal from Mars by E.T. Paull; The Syncopated Clock by Leroy Anderson; I Dreamed a Dream, Susan Thomas soloist, by Claude-Michel Schonberg; The Klaxon March by Henry Fillmore; and our traditional closing march, The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa.

Susan played in the Muni Band during her high school and undergraduate college years and, besides soloing, she'll be playing in our flute section for this concert. She asked us to particularly mention the lasting influence in her life of Marcia Korb, her flute teacher, mentor, and friend; and of Roger Hatteburg, who instilled in her her love of vocal music. Susan will perform two selections as listed below.

The cost of this concert is being underwritten by Gail Sullivan, in memory of her mother Olive Sullivan who passed away recently. Olive was a regular member of our audience and a strong advocate for the band. We greatly appreciate Gail's generosity!