Scout House Playing Marvin Hamlisch Tunes In 2013

Preston Scout House Alumni Band, of Cambridge, will open and close it’s 75th anniversary field show in 2013 with two well-known pieces by Marvin Hamlisch, the highly regarded composer who created memorable music for theatre productions and movies from the late 1960s until his untimely passing in August, 2012 at age 68.

A brief version of Memories: The Way We Were, from the 1973 movie The Way We Were, will be featured as Scout House played it five years ago to open the field show. The field routine will close with Through The Eyes of Love, the popular ballad from the 1978 movie Ice Castles.

Hamlisch composed music for more than 40 movies, beginning with The Swimmer in 1968, including the James Bond thriller The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977 and Sophie’s Choice in 1982. He also composed for eight music theatre productions. During his first major stage work in 1972, he played piano at Carnegie Hall, acting as accompanist and straight man for famous comedian Groucho Marx.

Hamlisch is one of the few artists to win every major creative prize, including four Emmy awards for television production in the 1990s. Between 1973 and 1975, he won three Oscars for film work, four Grammy awards for music, a theatre Tony award and a Pulitzer Prize, awarded for achievements in journalism, literature and musical composition, for A Chorus Line. He also won two Golden Globes for excellence in film and television.

Barbra Streisand’s version of The Way We Were remained on the Billboard Hot 100 list for 23 weeks after its introduction, eventually selling more than one million copies. The song won the Academy Award for best movie song of the year. The movie, a romantic drama starring Streisand and Robert Redford, also won an Oscar for best original dramatic score.

Ice Castles, issued in 1978, is another romantic drama, telling of the rise and fall of a figure skater who loses her sight, then returns to skating. The movie’s theme song Through The Eyes of Love was made famous by singer Melissa Manchester.

The Way We Were was arranged originally for Scout House Alumni Band by former music director and instructor John Conrad, who also taught the Scout House horn line in the 1950s.

Through The Eyes of Love, arranged for Scout House by Dave MacKinnon, of Kitchener, includes nine tempo changes, a mellophone feature and 17-count extended ending.

MacKinnon is also currently brass supervisor of the Canton, Ohio Bluecoats drum and bugle corps. He has served as a key member of the Bluecoats instructional staff since 1994 and was inducted into the Bluecoats Hall of Fame in 2009. His career as an arranger and instructor began in the 1970s as musical director of the Ventures all girl corps of Kitchener.

The Scout House field show music for the Band’s 75th anniversary year, all arranged by Mackinnon, will again be a blend of heritage tunes and newer selections that has proven so popular with audiences.

The selections for 2013 include If My Friends Could See Me Now from the Broadway hit Sweet Charity; Waltzing Matilda, the Band’s signature tune from the 1950s, featuring a dramatic hymn-like treatment of the chorus and a fanfare ending; Sing, Sing, Sing, one of the best-known hits from the Big Band era; Wayward Wind, which Scout House began playing in the late 1950s just a few weeks after it was featured on Top 40 radio play lists across the continent; Johnny One Note, with the horn line performing dance steps to the lively tune.

The Scout House schedule for 2013 includes more than 20 parades, concerts and field shows across southern Ontario, Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland.

Since its first stage show in 1999, Scout House Alumni Band has performed in more than 360 parades, field shows and concerts in communities across Ontario and Quebec, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, West Virginia and Maryland.

For more information about Preston Scout House Alumni Band, contact Activities Director Nancy Weiler at telephone (519) 653-3376, email prestonscouthouseband [dot] adm [at] sympatico [dot] ca or visit the Web site at http://www.scouthouseband.com/