TOWN OF TONAWANDA — If you’ve ever watched the end of the “The Incredibles” or any number of other Hollywood hits you’ve heard music arranged or conducted by Gordon Goodwin.
And if you’re at Kenmore East High School auditorium Thursday you’ll hear the world-premiere of a brand-new piece of music by Goodwin, written specially for the Kenmore East Jazz Band as the winners of a contest to promote his newest CD release.
Goodwin will take the stage with the Ken East band to perform “I’m Cooler Than I Look (A Band Geek’s Credo),” followed by a performance of the Jazz Ambassadors of the U.S. Army Field Band, with Goodwin also taking part in a few songs. The whole concert is a culmination of many months of work — and just a little bit of luck.
“It’s been a wild ride,” said Ken-East band director Phil Aguglia. “You enter a lot of things, but you never really expect to win. This is a big deal.”
“The whole thing’s been surreal ... having a phone conversation with Gordon Goodwin,” Aguglia said. “He called and said, ‘You won. We want to talk a little about your program so I can write something.’ A few weeks later, there’s a package in the mail with a chart he wrote for us.”
While the band has reaped the benefits, the actual winner of the contest was Joel Snitzer, whose daughter Andrea was a choral student at Ken East prior to graduating. She now studies music education in college. When he received an email sent from Aguglia to past and present “music parents,” informing them of the contest, he entered it on behalf of the school and didn’t give it another thought.
“It doesn’t hurt to try,” he said. “I never expected to win, and it was quite a shock when I got the email. I thought, ‘Is this for real?’
“I’m really happy I could do this for them. It’s a major coup for Ken East.”
The contest, conducted by Telarc International in conjunction with Alfred Music Publishing, was in honor of the release of Goodwin’s Big Phat Band’s newest release, “That’s How We Roll.”
In addition to the custom arrangement, every student in the band program — 120 students — won a copy of the CD and a copy of a Goodwin music play-along book, as well as the visit by Goodwin to work on the arrangement.
Read more on: http://tonawanda-news.com/local/x234166943/East-musicians-granted-chance-of-a-lifetime
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