New Picture Albums

Here is a link to some pictures of the band. If you have any band pics from 2009 please forward, link or bring in discs or copies to scan.

http://picasaweb.google.com/nmpienta/PACBandFallWinterConcert2009?feat=directlink

Merry Christmas!

Nathan

2010 Folders: Victory at Sea

Here is a fun piece that we are going to have in our folders this winter, "Victory at Sea"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sto3p3eozg8

pacband now on Facebook!

It is a work in progress, but the band is now on Facebook!

Search “Polish American Concert Band”

 

Thank you,

 

Nathan

 

Compliments around on a wonderful 2009 season. It is a lot of fun to be in this group as we continue to grow and improve. I am excited for new music in January. Here are some of the pieces we plan on reading in January: Zampa, Victory at Sea, Mars, Sabre Dance, Rakes of Mallow, and some arrangements of JS Bach and Chopin. If you have some requests, get them in soon. Just a reminder that we start back January 12th.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Nathan

Excellent Concert!!

Excellent concert on Sunday, and a great party for all who attended on Tuesday night. We have so much to be proud of and I am looking forward to our concert this Sunday, December 6th. We will play from 6:15-6:55pm, try to get there at 5:30 so we can set up in the sanctuary. We are expecting a large crowd, please remember to wear your "Christmas" uniforms.

See you Sunday,
Nathan

2009 fall winter concert pic

Christmas Concert: Calvary Bible Chapel

Sunday, December 6^th

6pm – 7pm

Calvary Bible Chapel

Toledo, OH

Concert Preview

http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/TOLEDO-OH/WSPD-AM/TT091115%20Polish%20American%20Concert%20Band%20Jim%20Rutkowski%20Steve%20Majer.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=TOLEDO-OH&NG_FORMAT=newstalk&SITE_ID=1258&STATION_ID=WSPD-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=Toledo_Today&PCAST_CAT=community_service&PCAST_TITLE=WSPD-AM_Podcast

Here is a link to a radio show that we were a guest on.
Thank you to Steve Majer and Jim Rutkowski - you guys are awesome!

2010 Wildwood Ice Cream Social Scheduled

We just got off the phone confirming a concert:

Monday
June 21st, 2010
6pm-8pm
Wildwood Manor House
Ice Cream Social

GUEST PERFORMERS AT FALL WINTER CONCERT!!

http://www.stflorianparish.org/adoramus_en.htm

 

2009 Fall Winter Concert

Here is the electronic version of the 2009 Fall Winter concert flier.
Help spread the word we would love to fill the theatre!

Thanks,
Steve Majer

Thank you from Heroes in Action Military Support Outreach

Heroes in Action

Military Support Outreach

 

 

Dear  Mr.  Pienta and the

   Toledo Polish American Concert Band: 

 

On behalf of Heroes in Action, the North West Ohio Support Group, the Point Place Business Association, the American Red Cross and the Veterans Service Commission, we want to thank you for your participation in the Support the Troops Rally.

 

It was truly appreciated and the orchestra was wonderful.  

Sincerely,

Dawn Heisler

 

No Rehearsal until 9/22/09

Thank you for a wonderful summer.

No rehearsal this Tuesday 9/15

Next rehearsal on Tuesday 9/22 at Calvary Bible Chapel - Officers meeting to follow.

Below is a link to the WTOL video for the Support the Troops Rally.

http://www.wtol.com/global/Category.asp?C=151146&clipId=&topVideoCatNo=14996&topVideoCatNoB=129734&topVideoCatNoC=129730&topVideoCatNoD=129733&topVideoCatNoE=106878&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=4115211&flvUri=&thirdpartymrssurl=

TRIBUTE TO THE TROOPS

TRIBUTE TO THE TROOPS  

5^th Annual

SUPPORT THE TROOPS RALLY

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

6:00 P. M.  

Friendship Park

2930 131^st Street

Toledo (Point Place), Ohio 43611

Master of Ceremonies

Jerry Anderson of TV Channel 11  

Veteran Speakers

Honor Guard – Rifle Salute

Music by the PACBAND

America’s Pride

Springfield JR ROTC

Patriot Guard Riders 

Bag Pipes by Sven Kroyer

Sound by DJ Subcool  

And many more participating  

  (BRING YOUR LAWN CHAIRS & MOSQUITO SPRAY)

Hotdogs and Apple Pie available at 5:30 pm 

 

Former Band Member Bill Vedra Sr. (1932-2009)

Just a note to inform you of the passing of one of our former long-time band members who was also an assistant director.  Bill Vedra Sr. passed away on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009.  Bill will be shown on Tuesday, Sept 8, 2009 from 2PM till 8PM at the Rossford Sujkowski Funeral Home on Lime City Road.  Funeral Mass will be Wednesday, Sept 9, 2009 at 10:30 AM at All Saints Catholic Church in Rossford. 

We should pass this information to the band members.

Thanks and see you on Wednesday night.

Jim Sr. 

 

_______________

 

 

Please visit the Obituary for William F. Vedra "Bill" Sr.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/toledoblade/obituary.aspx?n=william-f-vedra-bill&pid=132438548

Click on the link above or cut and paste the url into your browser's address bar.

 

GAF 2009

Great weather, great concert, and great times. See you Tuesday.

see you this Saturday

No rehearsal Sept 8th or 15th
Concert Sept 9th

updates

We will have tickets for the German American Festival on Tuesday 8/25/09, thanks to Steve Majer for picking those up.

 

We play from 2-6pm on Saturday.  

 

Also,

We are confirmed to play

Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Friendship Park
2930 131st Street
Toledo, Ohio

WE START PLAYING AT 6:00 PM
Rally begins at 6:30PM
HALF WAY THROUGH WE PLAY  “Armed Forces Salute “
Estimated end time 7:45PM

 

 

 

 

Thank you,

 

Nathan Pienta

 

The great tempo debate.

Viennese Waltz (German: Wiener Walzer) is the genre of a ballroom dance. At least three different meanings are recognized. In the historically first sense, the name may refer to several versions of the waltz, including the earliest waltzes done in ballroom dancing, danced to the music of Viennese Waltz.
What is now called the Viennese waltz is the original form of the waltz and the first ballroom dance in the closed hold or "waltz" position. The dance that is popularly known as the Waltz is actually the English or slow waltz, danced approximately at 90 beats per minute with 3 beats to the bar (the international standard of 30 measures per minute) while the Viennese Waltz is danced at about 180 beats (98-60 measures) a minute. To this day however, in Germany, Austria and France, the words "Walzer" (German for "waltz") and "valse" (French for "waltz") still implicitly refers to the original dance and not the slow waltz.

source: Wikipedia

PRACTICE TONIGHT

I’m excited for practice tonight, hopefully you are also.

 

-Nathan

GREAT CONCERT

Great concert last night.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening; there were lots of smiles, compliments, and even kisses from strangers.

 

-Nathan

Check your numbers.

No rehearsal on 14th.
Yes, rehearsal on 21st!
Yes, concert on 22nd!


(sorry about the typo in the previous post)

Great concert.

No rehearsal on tuesday 14th

No rehearsal on the 14th

Due to some scheduling conflicts we will not have rehearsal this tuesday, july 14th. We will instead have practice on the 21st and a concert on the 24th.

FUN EVENING

It seemed like everyone had a good time last night at the concert – that is something to be proud of.  Our next concert is the Lagrange Street Festival July 12^th (12:30-2pm), so we will be practicing a lot of Polish Music on Tuesday.  See you then.

 

-Nathan

Great Concert

Nice concert on Monday, I felt good about how we played. We played a lot of music and we enjoyed the time there. Compliments to all of you for your flexibility and musicianship.

-Nathan

FW: Tonight's Concert 6pm - 8pm

 

Hi,

This is Nathan Pienta from the PAC Band.  I screwed up and gave the wrong time.  Tonight’s concert is from 6pm to 8 pm (not 7-8:30). 

 

Again, the concert is from 6pm to 8pm, so please try to show up at 5:30. 

 

I apologize for this error.

 

Thank you,

 

Nathan Pienta

 

 

rehearsal, setup, Corpus Christi, & snackmanofthepacband

Nice rehearsal last night.  You guys are great at changing styles. Our biggest issue is still the phasing/timing as we spread out.  Next week we will go with a closer set up, remember to wear your deodorant.  Flutes, clarinets, trombones, and tubas on left;  saxes, trumpets, and baritones on right, Horns in middle 2^nd row.

 

As a reminder,  we are looking for individuals to play on Corpus Christi. Looking at the instrumentation hopefully we can get more brass players. We’ll try to run through the music at the end of rehearsal next week.

 

Also, my compliments go out to Dick Folta and his first-rate snacks. 

 

-Nathan

 

Announcements & Review of Friendship Park

Great concert, lots of positive comments from the crowd!
We helped to raise over $1000 for the Friendship Park Senior Center.


This Tuesday 5/19 we will prepare music for the next two events (click link to view map):

• Memorial Day, 5/25/09, 9:15 AM start playing, Mt. Carmel Cemetery, finish at 10:15AM.


• Luther Home of Mercy, 5/26/09, 7pm -8pm, Williston, OH

Also,

We just accepted an invittion to play at the German American Festival on Saturday August 29th from 2-6pm. So... I'll try to print new schedules ASAP.

See you Tuesday.

-Nathan

Congratulations to our new graduates

Congratulations to our 2009 University of Toledo graduates:

 

Betty Smith Ensign

Timothy Edward Bohls Jr.

 

 

Location of next Concert: Friendship Park Senior Center

• May 12 – Friendship Park Senior Center
• $6 before hand, $7 at door
• Concert from 7:30 – 9 pm
• Spaghetti dinner 6-730 pm
• All proceeds go to Friendship Park Senior Center (they just lost most of their funding)
• 2930 131^st street Toledo, oh

Flyer for Friendship Park Senior Center Concert 5/12/09

Friendship Park

In a couple weeks we will have our first concert of the year.
I will have exact details in the next few days.
If you were at rehearsal last night you may have heard that we are probably not doing the GAF this year - I have been trying to contact them but have been unsuccessful. Mike in the percussion section said that they are going to have a dance band in that slot this year. Stas and I both agree that this could be a great opportunity for us to try something different this August. For those of you worried about the finances of this, we are considering having Bill Bachar teach lessons on the side :) I'll keep you posted.

First Night - Calvary Bible Chapel

See you tonight at the Calvary Bible Chapel!

-Nathan

Rehearsal Tonight - testing our new call list

Bill Genson wanted me to be sure you tell everyone Dick May told him about the mass calling idea. Trying out the call-em-all list today at 3pm - so you should get a phone call this afternoon. We can discuss tonight how well it works.

-Nathan

NEW PACBAND AUTOMATED EMERGENCY CALLS

Sometimes it is difficult to get out the message to everyone in the phone tree, and it can take a fair amount of time & patience. Bill Genson suggested a web based automated call - I tried it out and it works well. The phone number on your caller ID will be my cell phone #, it will sound like me, but it will be a recorded message. We will still keep the phone tree as a back up. This service calls everyone at once and allows everyone to be contacted in one minute, instead of over two hours. If you are interested in learning more about this, you can visit www.call-em-all.com

See you Tuesday, Downstairs at the Point Place VFW.

-Nathan

4/14/09 - Downstairs at Point Place VFW

We will be downstairs on Tuesday 4/14/09.
Bill Genson has volunteered to be the Secretary of the Band.
Thank you to Jessica for her dedication and service.
More announcements on 4/14.

PRCUA Polish Night @ the Mud Hens

Passing along this message from PRCUA.

 

From: "Paul Wenzel, Jr."
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 16:07:03 -0400
To: <nathan@pacband.net>
Subject: PRCUA Polish Night @ the Mud Hens

 

 

Nathan,

The date is going to be August 1^st (Saturday).

 

More to follow-please spread the word.

 

Thanks,

 

Paul Wenzel Jr.

PRCUA

Tuesday, April 7th - Upstairs at Point Place VFW

There will be an officers meeting on 4/7/09.

If there is anyone interested in being the band secretary, see Stas’ Rutkowski.

 

Thanks,

Nathan

St. Patrick's Day - Upstairs

We will be upstairs at the Point Place VFW on 3/17/09.

Stop the press!

Sorry for the error on the last posting, next week's rehearsal is on 3/10/09, downstairs at the point place vfw.

DOWNSTAIRS AT POINT PLACE VFW - 3/10/09

WE'LL BE DOWNSTAIRS AT THE POINT PLACE VFW NEXT WEEK, 2/10/09.

THANKS,
NATHAN

Happy Birthday Smetana!

Today marks the 185th birthday of the famous Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. (one of Jessica's personal favorites)

Did you know that he was deaf and suffered from a terrible case of Tinnitus? He described the annoying ringing in his ears as "the shrill whistle of a first inversion chord of A-Flat in the highest register of the piccolo." (according to Wikipedia)

Tuesday 3/2 at Point Place VFW

We’ll be back at the Point Place VFW on Tuesday 3/2/09.

Rehearsal will be on the ground floor (not in the basement).

 

We’ll have copies of the calendars to hand out on Tuesday.

I’m feeling much better and am excited to start preparing for concerts. 

 

-Nathan

WHAT'S IN YOUR PACZKI?

New webpoll on website about your favorite fillings.

Rehearsal tonight is at the Calvary Bible Chapel on Alexis, hope to see you there.

-Nathan

Rehearsal at Calvary Baptist next week

The band is going to rehearse at Calvary Bible Chapel next week 2/24/09. We will be in a different room then last time. Thanks to Gary for setting this up.



-Nathan

Tuesday Rehearsal at Point Place VFW

This Tuesday we will be upstairs at the Point Place VFW.

IMPORTANT: 2/10/09 REHEARSAL LOCATION CHANGE!!!

NEXT WEEK FEBUARY 10^TH, 2009.  We will be rehearsing at the Calvary Bible Chapel on Alexis Rd.

Handicap accessible, ground floor entrance.  Please park towards the back doors of the facility.

If you are a “call list” person, please contact the band members on your phone list.

 

 

Calvary Bible Chapel

3740 W. Alexis

7:30-9pm

Bring a stand.

 

Thanks,

Stas’

Ground Hog's day*

Nice rehearsal. Next week we'll be upstairs at the Point Place VFW.



*Jessica joked that we should have ground pork, sausage + brats next week to celebrate ground hogs.

Limburger cheese

Fun rehearsal last night.

It is hard to beat well aged Sousa and food that smells like well aged feet.

Next week we will be down stairs at the Point Place VFW.

 

For those curious about the inscription on the music last night:

During World War I, John Philip Sousa was commissioned a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve and led the Navy Band at the Great Lakes Naval Station near Chicago, Illinois. Being independently wealthy, he donated his entire naval salary minus one dollar a year to the Sailors' and Marines' Relief Fund. After returning to his own band at the end of the war, he continued to wear his naval uniform for most of his concerts and other public appearances.

 

 

Double Sharps

Last night we saw some key signatures and notations we had never seen before.
Next week, 1/20/09 were going to play 4 Sousa pieces I personally have never played. We will be upstairs at the Point Place VFW.

Happy New Year!

Starting of the new year with Fred Jewell, Von Suppe, and Victor Herbert makes for good music. Everyone has their opinions about music, and fortunately I have never heard a PAC Band member who was afraid to voice them.

The plan for next week (Jan 13th) is to be downstairs at the Point Place VFW. We'll have an officers meeting to set some goals for 2009.

We are looking for someone to be be the snack manager (I prefer the title "Chairman of the Board"). This person would simply schedule & deligate the post rehearsal refreshments.

The gig calendar is pretty well set, so we should be able to pass out schedules very soon.

On a side note, Happy Birthday to Roger Barnes today.