Standing Ovations For Glassmen And Toledo Symphony

Thursday, March 30th, 2006 | Filed under DCI World | Posted by
The GLASSMEN wrapped up a whirlwind weekend of performances, concerts, drill, and rehearsal as part of their second camp during the month of March. Select brass and percussion members met early on Thursday to prepare for the weekend’s concerts with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, and were treated to a top-rate dress rehearsal with the symphony and it’s resident conductor, Chelsea Tipton, II.
The corps joined with the symphony to play the finale of the 1812 Overture, and after a few run-throughs of the piece – deciding exactly where the bass drum "canons" would do the least damage to the audience members ears! – they were set for two sold-out concerts on Friday and Saturday night.


Non-performing members look on as the GLASSMEN members play with the Toledo Symphony’s 1812 Overture.

These two performances, however, did not preclude the corps from getting work done at camp in preparation for the summer tour. The rest of the corps met up on Friday as they would for any other camp – and the full corps rehearsed drill and music outside for the third camp in a row – a weather record in the Midwest!

Saturday night, the entire corps went to the symphony concert. Fifty select percussion and brass players suited up for the first time in uniform this year, and made their grand entrance for the finale at the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle Hall. With over 1500 patrons in attendance each night, including dozens of other members, fans, family and friends of the GLASSMEN, the only thing more deafening than the final applause was the booming sounds of bold brass and drum "canons" filling the auditorium.

"It was like this wall of sound just coming at you from all directions," said one audience member. "Very cool." Watching the crowd was half the fun, as they noticed dozens of musicians filling the aisles and raising their horns for the rousing finale.

Click here to see highlights from the weekend performance.

The concert will be rebroadcast on the radio by WGTE-FM 91 in Toledo on Thursday, June 1st at 8:00 p.m. EST. Not in the area? You can follow along by listening live online by visiting WGTE online during the broadcast time.

If you missed the symphony performances of the weekend, you won’t want to miss the GLASSMEN’s next concert as part of the annual GLASSMEN Showcase. It’s going to be a PARTY!

Posted by on Thursday, March 30th, 2006. Filed under DCI World.