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Cardozo Middle School Performs December Concert
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Cardozo Middle School’s music department presents “A December Celebration” under the baton of director Dave Howard. The concert was staged in the Community Gym on the Cardozo campus.
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A row of trumpets provides the heart of the brass section, which also includes trombones, at Cardozo Middle School’s Advanced Band, while performing on Wednesday, Dec. 12, at the Community Gym on the Cardozo campus.
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Clarinets and flutes make up the woodwind section of the Eagle Advanced Band during its December Celebration concert.

The Music Department at Cardozo Middle School helped close out school classes for the year, and the semester, with its recent December Celebration Concert.

On Wednesday, Dec. 12, the school’s musicians gathered to present the concert in the Community Gymnasium, located on the CMS campus.

Performances included the Beginning Band, the Percussion Class, and the Advanced Band.

The beginners performed five tunes, music they’ve been working on since the beginning of the school year, according to Music Director David Howard.

They played Doodle All Day and Cossack Dance from their Essential Elements workbook. Then they performed Frere Jacques, a familiar French folk song, then Hard Rock Blues. They played a version of Cousin Louie, a rock tune, then Dixie Two Beat and Rock Point Five.

After a brief reorganization, which saw band performers trading places, there was a special interlude. The band’s drummers all came forward on the stage area, performing three pieces as the Percussion Class.

Tone Builder from the Essentials workbook was followed by Egyptian Dance, by classical composer Camille Saint-Saens and March Militare, by Franz Schubert. The second two were accompanied by members of the Advanced Band.

After the drum section retreated to the rear of the performing group once again, the Advanced Band took over the auditorium. They performed five pieces, both contemporary and classical.

They played Reveille Rock, and Ancient Spirits, followed by Latinesque. The Chorale from Jupiter was next, an excerpt from The Planets, Op. 32, a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System. The band’s program finished with the March of the Wooden Soldiers, based on Victor Herbert’s popular 1903 operetta Babes in Toyland.

A special encore finished out the program with Beginning Band members returning to the stage to join in performing together with the Advanced Band. Although not on the program, Director Howard said it was the piece the combined bands performed during the recent Christmas Parade in downtown Riverbank.

The Beginning Band’s roster includes 76 players. The Percussion Class lists 12 players and the Advanced Band includes 52 performers.