"4th Avenue" featured vocal entertainment at Sunday’s Concerts

Conductor of St. Joseph High School featured guest director with Municipal Band

Chicago trumpet soloist returns to perform with Municipal Band

Director of the St. Joseph Municipal Band, Dr. Donald Moely, indicated the band concerts scheduled for Sunday, July 22 will highlight "4th Avenue" an a capella singing group; Conductor of Bands at the St. Joseph High School, Steven B. Gruver, as a guest conductor; and a trumpet soloist from Chicago soloing with the band.

4th Avenue will be the entertainment about half way through the normally hour long concerts at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the John E. N. Howard band shell. The group consists of four singers who met while at Southwester Michigan College. They are Carol and Joe Krueger and Tim and Lindsey Borst. The have performed at many area festivals and most of their singing is similar to the nationally popular ‘Manhattan Transfer’ vocal group. They will perform; "Java Jive," "In the Jungle," "Trickle Trickle," "Little Bitty Pretty One," and "Under the Boardwalk."

Featured trumpet soloist with the band will be Bill Camp who enters his seventeenth year as a traveling performer and guest soloist. Camp has appeared with the Lake Forest Symphony, American Ballet Theater Orchestra, Northwest Indiana Symphony, Kenosha Symphony, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and the Symphonic Pops Orchestra of Chicago and now performs with Chicago Classic Brass. He has performed in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and at La Scala, Italy. This fall Camp will tour Taiwan with the Pops Orchestra of Chicago. As a soloist Mr. Camp has appeared with The Quad Cities Symphony, The Dallas Wind Symphony, Chicago Chamber Brass, Northwest Indiana Symphony, and many other performing ensembles. Camp graduated from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and The University of Michigan and his principal teachers include Gene Young, Louis Davidson, Armando Ghitalla and Thomas Crown. AND :feature guest vocal soloist Michelle Gruver of St. Joseph, singing the music of "South Pacific." Also included in the concert will be band member Dr. David Ratajik, of Stevensville, performing an alto saxophone solo with the band and principal tuba player of the band, Jerry Lackey, of South Bend, conducting his latest composition featuring outstanding songs of the last Century. He will perform a famous trumpet solo of the Sousa era by performing "Carnival of Venice." arranged by Donald Hunsberger

Steven B. Gruver, who is beginning his second year as Conductor of Bands of St. Joseph Public Schools, in St. Joseph, Michigan, will be the guest conductor for the concerts and is directing "Victory at Sea," by Richard Rodgers. He received his Bachelors of Music Education from the University of Arizona, and his Masters Degree at Tennessee Technological University in Wind Band Conducting and Trumpet Performance. He has taught at the Tennessee Technological University, Tucson Unified School District, Mesa Public Schools (Arizona), and was the Associate Director of Bands at John Adams High School in South Bend, Indiana. Mr. Gruver is an active adjudicator, private studio instructor, guest conductor and trumpet soloist. He is a life member of Kappa Kappa Psi (Omega Chapter), Music Educators National Conference (Michigan), International Trumpet Guild, Federation of Musicians Local, and Music Educators National Conference. Gruver also serves on the board as treasurer for the Michigan State Band and Orchestra Association—District 6. Gruver has been on staff at the famed Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. He currently performs with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, St. Joseph Municipal Band, and various chamber groups.

Dr. Moely said the concert begins with a Sousa march entitled "The Minnesota March." "Cornet Carillon" arranged by Floyd Werle is a piece where the entire trumpet section joins the trumpet soloist William Camp. The band will also perform George M. Cohan’s "Over There."

The concerts will be at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m., at the John E. N. Howard Band Shell across from the Whitcomb in downtown St. Joseph.