VGCC Community Band plays holiday favorites

The Vance-Granville Community Band held its second annual Holiday Concert on Sunday, Dec. 13 in the Civic Center on the college’s main campus in Vance County. VGCC music instructor Michael Stephenson serves as director of the band.

The program included many favorite holiday selections, including “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson, the overture from “The Messiah” by Handel, and several Christmas medleys. J.F. Webb High School band director Clint McCaskill, who plays clarinet in the band, stepped up to conduct a piece he wrote, “Tango of the Bells,” a Latin-inspired variation on “Carol of the Bells.” The same tune was heard at another point during the concert, when three VGCC Music Performance Scholarship students — Mike Allen of Henderson, Will Crews of Oxford and Nick Horvath of Creedmoor — performed their own arrangement of “Carol of the Bells” for guitar, bass and drums.

The band took a break for a special “story time” for young children. Dr. Mike Ellis, the Dean of Arts and Sciences for VGCC and a trumpeter in the band, read the story of “The Nutcracker” to the children in attendance.

Formed in 2008, the community band is a combination of VGCC students and interested citizens. All four counties of the VGCC service area (Vance, Granville, Warren and Franklin) are represented in the band, which has grown to approximately 50 members. For more information, call Michael Stephenson at (252) 738-3346.

Above: Michael Stephenson (center) and members of the Vance-Granville Community Band receive a standing ovation at the conclusion of the band’s holiday concert on Dec. 13, 2009. (VGCC Photo)