Lincoln Area Music Society embraces the ages with its time travel theme

 

[June 24, 2024] 

Sunday, June 23, was a nice evening for the third concert of the Lincoln Area Music Society Orchestra’s summer series at Latham Park.

The orchestra was led by guest conductor Harry Hild, a retired band director. Hild also directs Mt. Pulaski Community Band and is the lead conductor for Springfield’s Capital Area Concert Band. Hild said Riley McDorman will be back to conduct next week’s concert.

Sunday night’s theme was time travel with songs representing various eras. Concertgoer Jackson Johnson appeared to have travelled through a time machine with his unique outfit of 60s, 80s and 90s style clothing.

For the evening’s first song, people rose and faced the flag as the orchestra played the “Star Spangled Banner.”

Warren Barker’s “Happy Time March” was the first song to represent the evening’s time related theme.

The next song went way back in time to the era when dinosaurs walked the earth as the orchestra played themes from the Jurassic Park movies.

Moving into the 20th century, the orchestra then played John Higgins’ arrangement “The Eighties (A Decade of Hits).” Among the seventeen songs in this nine minute piece are “Billie Jean,” “Don’t Worry Be Happy” and “We are the World.”

Selections from the Walt Disney movie Pocahontas included “Listen With Your Heart,” “The Virginia Company,” “Savages” and “Colors of the Wind,”

Going forward in time again, the band played Larry Leake’s “Tales of Sea and Sail.” Hild said many of these songs came from sea shanties sailors used to sing while they were working. Many people probably heard these songs when they were children and wondered where the songs came from.

Hild took a moment to mention the sponsors who make the summer concert series possible. These sponsors include Guest House, Lincoln’s First United Methodist Church, Begolka Farms and Lincoln Daily News. Businesses or groups interested in sponsors the Lincoln Area Music Society can reach out to [e-mail].

Before they played the last few songs, the orchestra took a ten minute intermission.

During the intermission, many people bought cake and ice cream from the Lincoln Woman’s Club. The money raised supports the many community projects done by the Woman’s Club.

To start the second half, the orchestra played the theme from the movie “Star Trek Into Darkness,” which is set in outer space during the 23rd century.

The orchestra next played music for each holiday throughout the year with Bryce Newton’s “A Year in Three Minutes.”

Following that was Composer and Boston Pops Conductor Leroy Anderson’s “The Syncopated Clock,” which fit in well with the time theme.

Representing John Wayne’s many years of western movies was the theme song from his movie “The Cowboys.”

The orchestra ended the evening by playing “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful.”

Next Sunday, June 30, the orchestra will perform its final concert of the summer concert series. The concert will start at 7 p.m. in Latham Park.

[Angela Reiners]