POTSDAM — The Potsdam Community Band will perform its 2025 winter concert, Fiery Nights and Northern Lights - Music of Hope, Joy, and Anticipation for the New Year, on Sunday, January 19 at 3:00 pm at the Crane School of Music’s Hosmer Concert Hall.  

Admission is free, but PCB’s famous “donation tuba” will be on hand to accept donations.  

The band is under the baton of founding music director Theresa Witmer.

As the theme alludes, concert-goers will be treated to a wide variety of beautiful and stirring wind band music played by a 70-member ensemble.

Works on the program include the exciting and rhythmic Night on Fire, by American composer John Mackey; Voyage of the Northern Lights, a new work by Isabella P. Morrill; Chandler Wilson’s inspirational Spirit of Hope; the Japanese-themed Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Joe Hisaishi; a Spanish march entitled La Fiera Asturiana by Michele Fernandez; and An Ellington Portrait by Floyd E. Werle.

Also slated to be performed are a fun setting of 76 Trombones, from Meredith Willson’s The Music Man, arranged by Naohiro Iwai; the beautiful and expressive Dawn composed by Miyuko Ota; and Scenes from Citizen 13660, a piece inspired by the writings and drawings of a Japanese-American interred by the US government during World War II, and composed by Yukiko Nishimura.

The band will hold a total of six rehearsals in preparation for the performance over a two-month session.  PCB is composed of local musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences.  Ages this session range from around 15 to well over 80 years.  Many band members are life-long instrumentalists, some are local music educators and their students, and others are adults who have only recently picked their instrument back up after years of not playing.  

There is no audition requirement for Potsdam Community Band. If this type of musical experience sounds like something you would enjoy, email potsdamcommunityband@gmail.co