Missoula Community Concert Band: One True Life

busy conductor Gary Gillett, who wields his baton at the summer band concerts in the park, at TubaChristmas at the Mall, and with the Missoula Big Band, also was the rehearsal director who prepared the Missoula Community Concert Band for the fall concert, Sousa in Missoula.
On March 23, Gillett will again direct the band as this spring’s guest conductor. The event’s theme is “One True Life,” a tribute to mothers, and a recognition of the conductor’s own mother, saxophone player Maxine Bertha (Miller) Gillett (1921-2019).
The program will include a variety of music, from “als die alte Mutter” (Songs My Mother Taught Me) to “highlights from the “Sound of Music” with vocals by Caitlin Cisler. Playful pieces like “Puff The Magic Dragon” and “Ain’t We Got Fun” will contrast with the more classical sounds of O’ Magnum Mysterium and Dvorak’s “Largo from the New World Symphony”. This version of Largo has a specific connection to Missoula, as it was arranged by V.F. Safranek, military bandmaster who was stationed at Fort Missoula.