It is time, you know, it's summer. When we're talking about the Racine Concert Band and Mark Eichner conductor, musical director is here with us today. And we're going to talk about the concerts because last year they were at Festival Park this year. They're going to be at, I think, four concerts at the zoo. Wait a second here. There you go. Four concerts at the zoo and then two at the Coven Center. That's right. Where's it going to be at the Coven Center in the inside, right? Inside the quadrangle, outdoors. Oh, obviously it's going to be outdoors. OK.
Because my mom used to live next door at Lake Oaks at one time, so I'm very familiar with that. Plenty of parking, nice setting right across from the lake. It'd be nice. And we think we'll draw a whole new audience for that concert. Yeah, Lake Oaks walking right over there and no transportation needed. Oh yeah, so that's great. But in the meantime, your first concert is always around the 4th of July. And this one, it's on the 5th of July at Monument Square.
Let's talk about that because it's kind of confusing. I saw the map and it's still confusing to me because they have a food event there and they're charging $10 to get in. Is it $10 for adults and shekels for kids? I don't know, something like that. But your thing was, well, how are they going to see the concert for free if you're charging $10? So you guys are actually be in the street on Main Street, right?
I will be on 6th Street. 6th Street? OK, because that map that I saw looked like it was on Main Street. Oh, it's 6th Street. But if you want to not pay and see it for free, you can park your butts on a chair at Johnson Parkway. Correct. You just kick my, well, you kick my studio. Is that what you just did? I don't kick any of your equipment when I'm there. Anyway, OK, so are people going to face the band on Johnson Parkway? Yes.
Okay. Is that where the fountain is? Is that Johnson Parkway? Where that big fountain is? Is that? Is there a fountain there? It's definitely east of Maine. Okay. All right. Is it on 6th? Well, it's at 6th and Maine. Okay. So, I'll still be able to see. And Sam Parkway is the next street to the north. Okay. So, you'll be physically in the street.
Yes. Okay, that's not bad. Just, you know, when there's a car coming, I guess you got to pack your equipment and move over till the car passes by. That's the way it works. Well, this wasn't the ideal thing you were looking for, but it's going to work out. It's July 5th. And seeing it's outdoors, we got to hope for nice weather. Of course. Well, because when you're in the band shell at the zoo,
The people get wet, you don't get wet. You're covered. No, we'll be on a temporary stage rented by the city. Is that that outdoor thing they usually have? No, it's not the stage on wheels. It's much more elaborate. Oh, wow. OK, that's nice. And the concert begins. Our part is at six o'clock. Six o'clock. So the music starts at six, which is pretty normal for, you know, you do during the summer. All right. So after the July fifth one is over, you move to the zoo.
at the Kiwanis Band Shell, right? Four concerts in a row at 7.30 p.m. 7.30. No, downbeat at 7.30. Come on, let's talk like musicians that we are. Downbeat at 7.30 p.m., which is the normal time during the summer. Right. So four concerts at the zoo. And then we move over to the DeCoven Center for the last two, which will be downbeat at? Six o'clock. Six o'clock, because it gets darker sooner. All right. So we got that all settled away. You got all your music set?
We do. It's all gone to the printer. Okay. And I also found out, because you sent it to me, musical guests and everything. Are they the usual guests or we have somebody else special? Well, there's always some turnover. Doug Clemens, who was a big hit last summer, he's doing a residency at the Glimmerglass Music Theater Festival in Corning, New York. So he wasn't available to us this year, but
We hired a highly recommended tenor from Chicago, Jerick Fernandez. So we're looking forward to him joining the team. I'm trying to recover something here on my phone here while you're talking. Sure. And we have an oboe soloist that hasn't played with the band before, Stuart Sutter. He's a Milwaukee guy who's going to be playing with the band now. So we're looking forward to that.
So the first concert is at the monument square we talked about, and I'm seeing all the tunes. It's going to be like a fourth of July thing, a lot of patriotic music. It's a flag waiver. It's a flag. We're going to have a flag waiver. All right. So that's coming up. And now I'm looking at Sunday. And I can't read this stuff. July 12th. Oh, lighthouse brigade. Right. That's always a good thing when they bring the whole lighthouse brigade out there. That's nice. Laura.
Shop of Olive. Shop of Olive. Say it again. Shop of Olive. Shop of Olive. That's it. Shop of Olive. I remember you gave me that to pronounce one time. Shop of Olive. Oh, that's good. Yeah. And the next concert on July 9th, Genie Hatfield is going to be back. Yes. That's Genie's. So it's been 40 years since Genie was a Miss America contestant.
Oh, don't say that. And she's going to be singing the very same song she sang at the Miss America pageant. Oh, look at you. Bringing back a 40th anniversary. All right. On Sunday, July 26, Darlene Kelsey Soprano. She's going to be back again. That's nice. That's always good to hear. On Sunday, August 2nd. I can't believe we're talking about August already. Gracie, let's see. We have, have you pronounced that the vocalist's name?
Yes. Now, I saw it now. He was at Festival Park when you did it, right? Yes. Yeah, I remember him. He was good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see on Sunday, August 16th. So there's a break there. So after August 2nd, there's no concert on August 9th. Oh, it's a bye week. It's a bye week. Okay. All right. August 16th will be Allison Hall. She's been there many, many times, too. Yes.
From the beginning and finally August 23rd. We're really deep into August this time because normally it's not this deep into August, right? And Melissa Cardamon is going to be there of the soprano. So we got some good old they got the gold staff coming back again. That's good. I like that. Any of any musicians this year or just the the regulars? Well over the years we become much more we have a much more reliable membership and they're playing more concerts. So there's fewer substitutes and that's a good thing for the band.
That's good. Now, here's the thing I don't understand. You guys only do one rehearsal before the concerts. It sounds like you need like five. If it was me, I'd need five rehearsals to get this right. But you know, they're pros, so it doesn't matter. You just end in the sheet music, you go over it a few times and that's it. Well, they're kind of manic rehearsals, but we get it all. I've been to one of them. They are kind of manic rehearsals. You do it over the parkside this year, right? Right. And it is kind of manic and you get them done and you're ready to go.
Now, I never hear any problems. You might hear the problems because you know what you're listening for. The audience isn't going to hear that. So let's do a quick review here before we get into all this needles and pins of this. People bring the lawn chairs on each concert. You can bring your lawn chairs and park your butts on Johnson Parkway. Yes. It's 6 p.m. start. It won't cost you anything. It's free. If you park, if you go to Johnson Parkway, it's free. If you go inside,
Well, if your fate, where's the band going to be facing on 6th Street? I think we're facing north. Okay. Okay. So if the people paying go in, they could sit down and watch the band. Okay. I'm trying to figure how that works. This is new to my head here. And after that, four concerts at the zoo, regular zoo, people are very familiar with that. And then at the Coven Center, which will be nice. That's a nice change right there on the lake. I like that too. Okay. And since all starts.
with the parade because you're in the parade on the fourth of July on a flatbed truck. How you guys play instruments on a flatbed truck while it's hitting potholes and and manhole covers that are like three inches below the street level. I don't know how you do that because some of those manhole covers are really, really low. But we're lucky to have great drivers from Floyd Floyd's toe. You know, they go all around them and they're really good. Yeah, that's pretty good. They're playing in the street while you're on a flatbed truck.
That's great. Now, what if it rains? You covered in the parade or not? We don't play if it's actually raining. We put our ponchos on and wait for it to stop. Okay. Mark Ockner is here for the Racine Concert Band to get an award. So in March, I received the Racine Arts Council Heart of the Arts Award, which is kind of a lifetime achievement award for consistent and
contributions to the art scene. Well, look at you. Congratulations. Very nice. You deserve it. You've been with the band. How long now? This is my 25th year. 20. Oh, 25. That's good. 25 years conducting. Yes. Oh, wow. And they haven't been that many conductors in the hundred and four. This is the hundred and fourth year of the Racine Concert Band. They haven't been that many. Just five. Wow. That's pretty good. Now, your predecessor used to come in all the time and it was Del Ishe was in here all the time.
And he's no longer with us, but, um, he was there for a number of years too. 27 for Del. So what's the record? Is he on the record 27? Uh, I think the John Opefer Cook, uh, preceded him. And I think he's 28 years. Oh, you can, you can blow by that, but no problem. You still got many years in front of you there. And then two Schulte brothers before that, and they weren't as long. They were more like 10 years. That's three years. I can blow right through that. Now.
You play the trumpet used to play the trumpet. You don't play now though. Right. Okay. Is that the only instrument you played? Yes. See, last time I spoke to you, I was learning the piano and I didn't practice a lot. That's my problem. My wife can play and she realized you got to practice. I said, yeah, yeah, I'll get around to it. And if you don't practice, you forget stuff real fast. And I started learning with my left hand, my right hand. And then I was moving over to my left hand and I don't know how pianists do that.
She gave me real simple stuff to do with my left hand so I didn't have to concentrate on it. But after a while, he gets your left hand a lot more. And I asked the pianist at our church, how do you do it? He said, I just keep it simple with my left hand. It's right. It's very difficult to play with two hands. I see these videos of pianists in concert and they don't have any difficulty playing with their left hand and right hand, but it takes practice. And you got to figure out a way to make that practice fun. So you look forward to it.
So he gave me very simple songs to do. Take me out to the ball game and all these things. And with your left hand, just got hit a couple of chords with it or notes or whatever. And I just didn't practice enough. Maybe someday in retirement, I'll learn how to play the piano. But that's the only instrument I was really able to play. Took the trumpet. They threw me out. I told you they threw me out of the
grammar school band because I would they wasn't that good at it. I don't know how you get the air in there. It's more like a spitting thing you do when you're on the mouthpiece. It's not like blowing air like, you know, like a whatever instrument. You got to do it in a kind of spinning way and I couldn't I couldn't grasp that. I was trying to blow air into it and that's not how you do it trumpet. So anyway, I didn't know how to do that. But your band, the band is just fabulous.
Every every year I'm just amazed at how good they are and the soloist you pick out every year just a very great It's tough playing outside in the elements. It's not that easy. It is You know as a trumpet player myself that first I mean I would spend a lot of my summer playing outdoors and it's just very very taxing and That first time is always a wake-up call
After that, you get used to it and you know how hard you have to work, but there's no resonance there. So, you know, you play and the sound just doesn't go very far, which means you have to work harder all the time. And the soloists, their papers are blowing and it's tough. You're trying to sing and you got to hold your papers down at the same time, but this is pretty easy. You have these lead weights to use on your papers. I see you constantly moving around.
But with you, you've got the music for almost every instrument up there you're looking at. I don't know how you do that either. It's too much paper. But you know, we were at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival in Chicago a few years ago and it was a very windy day and they were and these famous big name jazz artists that had international reputations. I mean, some of them were like brought to their knees because dealing with the wind and Gus and.
stands blowing around. It's like, wow, you've never seen concert, but I never know how to deal with it. It's surprising they don't. I remember once it was thundering and lighting, you couldn't see it because your back was facing it. I remember going up to you, concert's over. That is the rule. If there's lightning, it's the concert's over. Yeah, it was lightning and I said, concert's over.
It was over. All right, quick. I want to do you have a lot of patriotic music coming up this year because it's America's 250th birthday. Exactly. And you got a special piece, you said, right? Well, so the mayor convened a meeting of dozens of civic groups early in the year and they unveiled their logo for the 250. And that's going to be our cover for the concert season. And he encouraged everyone to
include the 250 celebration throughout the year, not just as one event, but to incorporate it for as many events as they could and make it a year long celebration, not a one day thing that happens on July 5th. And I took that to heart. And so on every concert in the summer season, there's at least now on July 5th, there's a lot of patriotic music, but on the other concert, all of the other concerts, there's at least one piece that
that was written to document musically a specific event in American history. So there's a lot of music from World War II, but also we have music from the American Revolution, some of that's modern, some of it's sort of native to that time period. And we have Richard Rogers, Victory at Sea, Samuel Adler's revolutionary songs. Every concert has.
One of those pieces songs of the revolution. My dad, my dad, my dad just was a victory at sea on TV, the TV series. Richard Rogers wrote the music for the TV series of victory at sea. The we're playing a suite called the battle of Trenton and I didn't know anything about the battle of Trenton and then Jersey.
Yes. And then the New Ken Burns series that he devoted the whole show to the Battle of Trenton. He does such great work with those documentaries now. I learned what an important battle it was and how important it was to the founding of our country. New Jersey, huh? Yes. All right. Who knew? Trenton, New Jersey. By the way, for people that don't know, Trenton is the capital of New Jersey. A lot of people don't realize that. And we have music from Michael Cayman's music from the...
the television series Band of Brothers about to look at you getting real modern there. OK. I was told I got a text from someone here. It says recap July 5th, please. And so here's how we understand it now. The band will set up at sixth and main facing Sam Johnson Parkway. Am I right? Yes. OK. And the public is welcome to set up their chairs and blankets there at no cost on Sam Johnson Parkway. That's correct.
Okay. Well, that sounds good. All right. So taking care of. So there is a probably a city of Racine.org. There's a full schedule for the day. I know the Racine Symphony is sending a group to play earlier in the day. So the music starts earlier and the actual food service ends before the band starts. So we're sort of the finale of the day after the food service. Okay. Good. All right. We're all set. Excited.
Yes, I am. Boy, these summers go come and go so fast, don't they? I mean, it just seems like yesterday. Are you going to do the same thing this year with the big finale with the questions? Sure. We're doing that this year, the trivia questions, and then the big finale grand prize at the final concert. Millions of dollars worth of prizes. Okay, just checking. People love those questions. They do. Who's in charge of the questions this year?
Me Okay, that sounds good. I am so excited. This is summer to me now when the band starts playing. All right, so let's do a quick recap here. We've got July 4th, you'll be in the parade flatbed truck and playing in the parade like you always do Who gives you the flatbed? We own our own float. It's not it's not a flatbed. It's a float. Oh, okay A flatbed truck to me. Okay, it's a float you own that okay. I never wanted to own a float but
Sure enough, we've got one. Okay. And that's End of Life. What's July 5th is the big concert at Monument Square. And it's, you can pay to get in and eat food and everything. Or you can go to Sam Johnson Parkway, park your butts there on a chair and watch the band play for free. So that's good. Let's see. Then after that, the next few weeks are going to be at the zoo for some days at the zoo. Right. Then there's a bye week.
And no concert August 9th. And then there's the next two are at the Coven Center. That's correct. Well, that's great. That's great. And that's all going to be in the program guide when it's printed, right? Yes. Okay. We got to have people know about all this stuff. Well, that's great. And I'll be looking forward to working with you again this year. Me too. And of course, they can always check out the schedule at RacineConcertBand.com. Okay, RacineConcertBand.com. And we're going to be talking about each and every concert here on the air as well.
So that'll be good. Thank you, Mark. Looking forward to this. Pleasure to be here. Okay. And the band hierarchy this year is Sean, the president of the band. Sean is the executive director. Executive director. The president is Ryan Rignoldo. Oh, that's Ryan Rignoldo. Okay. And all these, all these people in the, they're all, they're all band members. They all play instruments. You don't have to be outside people being president there. Yes. We're kind of unusual among music nonprofits because most of our board directors and
all of our staff, our musicians. That's good. All right. Thanks for coming in. You're going to come in again because we're not done with this. And we're going to talk more as these concerts go on. Thank you very much, Mark. Mark, Mark, your 25th year as the conductor, musical director of the Racine Concert Band, which is celebrating their 104th year. That's a that's a big thing to be holding on to 104 years. You're responsible for 104 years. I remember starting with the band and I thought,
You know, way, way off in the distance would be the band's Centennial. And I thought, now I'll never be around for that. There you are. 104th year. Well, good luck. I can't wait for the concert on July 5th. And then we've got the, uh, the T'Forza concerts and two at the DeGovine Center in a bi-week in between there on August 9th.
