DUTCH ORCHESTRA TO OFFER DIFFERENT SOUND

The sound of a Dutch brass orchestra may be new to many American ears. Unlike American wind bands, a Dutch brass orchestra includes no woodwinds with the exception of saxophones.

Saxes and fluegelhorns carry the melody line, replacing the clarinets.

Southeast Missouri is one of six lucky locations on the itinerary of the Southern Netherlands Young People's Brass Orchestra.

The band will perform at 7:30 tonight with the Sikeston Dixieland Band at the Sikeston Senior High School. More concerts are scheduled at 2 p.m. Sunday with the Jackson Municipal Band at the Jackson City Park bandshell and at 7 p.m. Sunday at Southeast Missouri State University's Academic Auditorium with the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band.

The 73 youthful band members are staying with families in Cape Girardeau until leaving Monday. Southeast Missouri is the fourth stop on a tour which began July 23 in Washington, D.C., and will end Aug. 7 in Newport News, Va.

The band arrived in Cape Girardeau Friday night from its most recent performance, in Holland, Mich., of course.

Conductor Bert Langeler said Dutch brass orchestras originated about 150 years ago in towns so small that a full complement of woodwinds was difficult to find.

This band was founded in 1992 and has traveled to England, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Spain and now the United States. It is composed of the best musicians between the ages of 15 and 25 from the southern Netherlands region.

Leo Weyman, the band's announcer, said this is most of the young musicians' first look at America. "They only know America from TV and films," he said.

Langeler said size was the first primary impression. "Everything is so big here. The houses are big, the roads are big," he said.

The orchestra will play an array of music ranging from Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" to "Music from the Wizard of Oz." They know "The Star-Spangled Banner" as well.

Many Dutch composers write music specifically for Dutch brass orchestras, and arrangers are able to adapt pieces originally written for wind bands.

Langeler is a teacher in a music school at Almkerk in The Netherlands. He is a member of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, an organization whose membership also includes Dr. Robert Gifford, a professor of music at Southeast Missouri State University. He and Gifford first met in 1983.

Gifford, the director of the Southeast Wind Ensemble and a frequent conductor of international bands, helped bring the Dutch band here.