Sound Beach Community Band Concert



Danielle Brooks, 16, a junior honor-roll student at Greenwich High School, will make her first solo appearance playing Concertino for Clarinet and Band, Op. 26 by Weber with the Sound Beach Community Band (soundbeachband.org) at its July 24th concert.  The band, led by its conductor and music director Barbara Freedman, will also perform works by Gershwin, Strauss, and Sousa.  The free concert will be held in Binney Park at 7 PM.  The audience is encouraged to bring a picnic dinner.

Danielle began studying clarinet at age 6 with former Eastern Middle School teacher George Mathes.  When she was in 8th grade, she joined high school & professional wind players in the pit orchestra for the school’s production of Annie.  She also played in the pit with college music majors for Wizard of Oz at Frenchwoods Festival and with professional musicians for Beauty and the Beast at Greenwich High School.

She’s the principal clarinetist of the Stamford Young Artists Philharmonic, founded in 1960 by former GHS Orchestra conductor Salvatore Princiotti, and a member of the GHS Symphony Band.  In January 2011 she performed with the Connecticut Music Educators Association Western Region Band.

Danielle is president of the Explorer Post at the Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Department.  She has volunteered for the Greenwich Lions Club (greenwichlions.org) Easter Egg Hunt, the International School at Dundee Renaissance Festival, and the Tri State Trek (needmorecowbell.org), a charity ride benefitting ALS research which coincidentally concludes at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park just before the concert.

About the SBCB
Known as the Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Department Band until 2007, the Sound Beach Community Band (SBCB) has been an Old Greenwich tradition since 1955, providing marching music for the department (soundbeachfire.org) at parades in Greenwich and other towns in Fairfield and Westchester counties, and performing free public concerts town-wide.  Music director Freedman (musicedtech.com) teaches Electronic Music & Audio Engineering at GHS. She's a professional timpanist and percussionist who works regularly with area symphony orchestras.  Barbara is currently teaching a graduate course at Five Towns College, racing to complete her second book before school starts and planning her August wedding.

SBCB entertains throughout the year at community events and venues such as the fireworks in Binney Park, the Independence Day Ceremony at Town Hall, the Strawberry Social, the St. Catherine’s Carnival of Fun, and the Pumpkin Patch.  The band is always on hand for Santa's arrival at the Sound Beach firehouse during the Old Greenwich Merchants First Light Festival.

SBCB welcomes new members at any level to join its core of volunteer professional and semi-professional musicians -- so dust off that flute you played in junior high and join the fun!

SBCB, which depends on community support, is an American tax-exempt, nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charity.

For more information, contact personnel manager (& clarinetist extraordinaire) Eric Milkie at 203.653.4151 or band@soundbeachband.org.