Page 6 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • October 26, 2011 Emmanuel asks... Can You Band West PointHelp? by John Koster A capacity crowd recently heard two of Ridgewood’s own performing in featured roles with the West Point Band at West Side Presbyterian Church. The program climaxed with Northwest Bergen County veterans standing as the official marches of their own branches of service were played. “Hopefully we’re doing a good job respecting our brothers and sisters out there in harm’s way and hopefully you’ll keep them in your hearts and minds,” said Captain Dae Kim, the deputy commander 4-29-09 karen/janine of the United States Military Band, which EmmanuelHelp3x.75(4-29-09) is also called the West Point Band. A graduate of Temple University and 3 x .75 clarinet soloist who has performed with Christoph Eschenbach, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Leonard Slatkin, Captain Kim is also a graduate of the grueling officer Ridgewood training programs at Fort Benning, Georgia and Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He takes his dual road as a conductor and soldier very seriously. His concerts are always popular in Ridgewood because of his diffident personal charm and his astute mixture of traditional military marches and modern classical music which knowledgeable local audiences appreciate. Two local performers also made the bill. After the national anthem and the “West Side Fanfare,” an original piece commissioned from composer Ron Passaro, Dr. Chris Wilhjelm of the Ridgewood Concert Band stepped in as guest conductor for “Festive Overture” of Dimitri Shostakovich. The music, which Captain Kim described as a “warhorse,” kicked up its heels under Wilhjelm’s spirited conducting. Shostakovich survived under Stalin by knowing just how hard to push the envelope, and the overture conjured up the performs at West Side Presbyterian Left: West Point Band member and Ridgewood resident Sergeant Sam Kaestner. Right: West Point Band member Captain Dae Kim. notion that Shostokovich was kidding when he wrote it and wincing in case Stalin got the joke. Wilhjelm handled it with gusto. Sergeant First Class Sam Kaestner, a Ridgewood resident “right by the railroad tracks,” was the featured player in two selections. “Drill” by Evan Ziporyn, defined avant-garde music but brought a huge hand from the audience due to Sgt. Kaester’s virtuoso skill on the bass clarinet. The avant-garde came down to earth -or grass -- with John Phiilp Sousa’s “Easter Monday on the White House Lawn,” a funny, rollicking romp. “Poeme Montagnard,” by the Belgian composer Jan Van der Roost, was a moody, evocative depiction of the landscape and folk culture of the Franco-Italian Alps, brought to a spooky life by Sgt. Kaester’s clarinet, Captain Kim’s sensitive conducting, and a roster of percussion instruments more typical of a Hollywood studio than an Army band. After the intermission, the civilian and military classics recaptured the field. Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” benefitted from a powerful brass bass section Bach might have envied when he wrote the piece. Values for brass instruments hadn’t been invented in Bach’s lifetime, and not until Richard Wagner did a whole chorus of tubas turn up in the operatic repertoire. The West Point Band handled this piece to marvelously great effect. The concert concluded with the band’s signature pieces: Philip Egner’s “Official West Point March” with its allusions to a German folk song, “The Infantry, King of the Road,” and the brass-bound invocation of West Point itself. Captain Kim urged all veterans to stand when the official songs of their former branches of service were played, and they followed orders. Starting with the U.S. Coast Guard March and moving through “The Wild Blue Yonder” for the U.S Air Force, “Anchors Aweigh” for the U.S. Navy, “The Halls of Montezuma” for the U.S. Marines, and the “Caisson Song” -modernized to “The Army Goes Rolling Along” -- the music brought most of the older men in the audience and a number of the women to attention. Most concertgoers appeared to have served either in the Army or the Coast Guard. The official program concluded with “Chester” -- “Let Tyrants Shake Their Iron Rods” -- America’s national anthem even before the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Captain Kim’s encore was John Philip Sousa’s most famous march, “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”