First Empire Statesmen Concert Of 2012 Spring Season
Rochester’s Empire Statesmen will take the audience along on a mysterious tour of the seedy and sensational sides of Las Vegas in their 2012 field show production titled A City Called Sin. And if visiting Las Vegas via a musical experience isn’t enough to satisfy your travel urge, the Statesmen are offering two real life opportunities for vacations in a sunshine destination.
Some of the selections from the field show will be presented for the first time during a benefit concert to take place at Medina High School in western New York on Saturday, April 28. The Empire Statesmen have a long history of performing winter and spring indoor benefit concerts to raise money in support of school music programs throughout western New York and southern Ontario.
The schedule in Medina will include outdoor drill practice on Saturday before the evening concert and the following day, Sunday April 29.
The Empire Statesmen’s 2012 field show will capture the dual nature of Las Vegas, illustrating the contrast between the old and new areas, the drab seedy side of the city and the neon-lit glamour of the show business side of town. The music will set the mood and atmosphere as spectators follow the adventures of a young couple who arrive in Las Vegas with high hopes. The presentation involves a touch of magic, literally, as the girl disappears from view as the show opens then mysteriously reappears in different spots on the field as she makes her way through A City Called Sin. At the climax, she reappears in her original position on the field.
The music defines the stages of her journey, opening with It Was A Very Good Year, one of Frank Sinatra’s great hits, a wistful tale of advancement through all the stages of life. There’s no doubt which side of the city the heroine is in when the music is the early Beatles’ classic Can’t Buy Me Love.
The percussion feature in the field routine is a selection from the repertoire of Cirque du Soleil, whose moody, provocative productions are one of the major attractions for Las Vegas visitors.
The audience will share the girl’s sense of isolation with the somber sound of All By Myself, the powerful ballad expressing the melancholy feelings of loneliness and a life without love, which is partly based on a piano concerto by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff with lyrics written in the mid-1970s.
Finally, the story takes the audience back to the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas with Luck Be A Lady, from the Broadway hit musical Guys and Dolls. In the movie version, Marlon Brando sang the musical plea so that he could win a bet that would help him revive the relationship with the girl of his dreams.
The real life travel opportunities that Statesmen are offering this year are a raffle for a luxury Florida condo and a winter Caribbean cruise.
Statesmen’s Florida vacation package including four days and three nights in a luxurious seven-bedroom All Star vacation rental home in Orlando, Florida is the prize in a raffle to be drawn the night of their Rochester home show on August 25—or sooner if all tickets sell before that date.
Only 2,000 tickets will be sold, at $20 each. The winner will not have to be present when the ticket is drawn. The winning package will include four (one day) tickets to the Disney World Theme Park of the winner’s choice and a $1,000 travel stipend to help with travel costs exclusive of airfare and gasoline. Visit http://www.allstarvacationhomes.com/ for information on All Star rental home policies. Raffle tickets are available from Statesmen members.
If your ideal winter vacation is a cruise in tropical waters, you can set sail on a seven night trip aboard the Celebrity Summit leaving San Juan on January 12, 2013. The ship will visit Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten and St. Thomas.
Price for a window room is $616.21 per person and $827.21 for a balcony room per person. A $25 per person deposit will hold your space on the cruise. Payment plans are available and encouraged. Each room will receive a $50 on-board room credit. Prices listed for the cruise include all port charges and taxes, but not airfare. The cruise line reserves the right to add a fuel surcharge at any time.
For more info or to reserve your room on this Empire Statesmen voyage, call Bob and Cathy Cardaneo at 1 (800) 519-0050 or email: rcardaneo [at] cruiseone [dot] com.
About the Empire Statesmen
Since first competing in 1983, the Empire Statesmen have won five Drum Corps Associates (DCA) world championships, four American Legion national titles, and the World Show Band championship while placing in the top four at DCA championships for 23 consecutive years.
The Empire Statesmen drum and bugle corps is a self-supporting, independent group that represents the city of Rochester across the United States and Canada and as far abroad as Europe, the Caribbean and South America. The Empire Statesmen also sponsor the Empire Cadets youth band as part of a longstanding community outreach program, which includes benefit concerts to support music programs across western New York and southern Ontario.
For more information about any aspect of the Empire Statesmen organization, call (585) 266-2232, e-mail esmen [at] rochester [dot] rr [dot] com or visit the Empire Statesmen Web site at: www.statesmen.org
