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State College, PA
(814) 867-9935
Rick Hirsch is a nationally-known composer, arranger and jazz educator living in State College, PA. Check out his music, book a live jazz band in Central Pennsylvania.
Here’s why I’m excited about these new arrangements:
They’re long overdue, especially Swing Low.
They sound great.
They’re quite playable.
They’re scored AATB flex. Though I wrote these AATB, there are substitute parts for each of the four saxophones, allowing for maximum flexibility.
They’re road-tested with students and pros.
Ode to Joy is especially great to use with as many sax players as you can gather.
Please do check them out — I think you’ll like them.
This year I got to write a boatload of halftime music for the great university marching bands at Penn State, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
Here’s the music that has been performed so far:
Bye, Bye, Bye (NSYNC) / Sucker (Jonas Brothers)
Firebird Suite (Stravinsky)
MARVEL UNIVERSE: Marvel Studios Fanfare, Avengers Theme, Can You Dig It?, Awesome Mixtape Vol. 1, Black Panther
FUNK SHOW REHEARSAL:
You’re Still a Young Man/What Is Hip, Higher Ground, Through the Fire, Let’s Groove, Uptown Funk
PIANO SHOW REHEARSAL:
Piano Man, Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting, Empire State of Mind, Love Song, Bad Romance/Shallow
BROADWAY SHOW:
Opening Up, Lady Marmalade, Waving Through a Window, Alexander Hamilton/the Room Where it Happens
NO VIDEO FOOTAGE AVAILABLE :-(
LADY GAGA (Bad Romance/Shallow) in LAMBEAU at halftime of Packers-Raiders game!
University of Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band — one selection TBA at Nov. 9 game honoring Veterans Day
Penn State Blue Band — entire halftime show TBA vs. Rutgers on Nov. 30
With any luck at all, I’ll be able to track down some videos after those games.
The US Navy Commodores played a concert Monday at State College Area High School, which is right down the street from my house, and many of my students attend.
To my delight (and surprise!) they played two of my tunes, Giddyup! and Strut. Of course, they sounded incredible. SO locked in, yet flexible with the music.
I ‘filmed’ them playing Strut. Dig their amazing bass trombonist Matt Neff absolutely owning this music:
p.s. Sorry for the lousy video work (the audio is decent, though!)
p.p.s. Strut has been flying off the shelves. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the score, please do.
I’ve been arranging halftime music for the Penn State Blue Band annually since 2002. Listen to many of those arrangements here.
As of this marching band — I mean football season — I am now a contributing arranger for the University of Wisconsin Badger Band.
I’ve arranged the full halftime shows that will be performed on Sept. 21, Oct. 5, and Oct. 12. I’m thrilled to be writing for this iconic college marching band.
As a side note, I’ll also be arranging one tune for the University of Iowa Hawkeye Band (as I did last season, too).
Stay tuned…
Middle school group performing for parents on last day of camp
For some reason I thought it’d be a fun idea to run a saxophone camp. Indeed, it was a blast!
For a week in late June I had twenty-two middle and high school saxophonists for half days. We rehearsed in small and large groups, had special guests David Stambler (Penn State saxophone professor) and Dan Yoder (Stambler’s predecessor!), had a saxophone petting zoo provided by our local saxophone tech-extraordinaire, Jack Eggert; and performed for friends and family in the park across the street.
I shared the teaching duties with a few of my former students, all now in college: Ian Brannan (Penn State Music Ed.), Alex Rothstein (Lawrence Conservatory Bio/Jazz Studies dual degree), and Shane McCandless (U of Miami, Jazz Studies).
The camp was an outgrowth of my after-school saxophone ensemble, the Fraser Street Saxes.
As you can see from the pic above, we even got snazzy t-shirts!
I’ve just released three brand-new pieces for jazz ensemble.
And the coolest part is that all three of these have been received the Editors’ Choice designation in the JW Pepper catalog.
James Brown goes big band • Grade 4 • Bass Trombone or Bari Sax feat.
Oh yes, it’s raucous.
Up-tempo swinger • In a Japanese Pentatonic mode • Grade 4-5
Alto & Trumpet feature • B.Y.O.G. (Bring Your Own Gong)
Grade 1 • Sneaky, swingy, and bluesy • Don’t wake Mom and Dad!
To my delight, the U.S. Navy Commodores have been performing a couple of my charts recently.
Here’s a gig tape of them playing my so-new-the-toner-is-still-warm Strut, featuring bass trombonist extraordinaire Matt Neff.
Oy, what a band.
Last Saturday (Nov. 24, 2018) marked the Penn State Blue Band’s final halftime show of the regular season. In the rain/sleet they performed three brand-new arrangements of mine:
Carol of the Bells (a la DCI!)
All I Want for Christmas (a la Big 10 dance feature)
Auld Lang Syne (a la too much champagne / Second Line vibe)
They’re standing still due to the field conditions (rain/sleet).
I just stumbled across a couple videos that made my day. Both are performances by high school jazz bands of Tonight, We Tango.
The first one features tango dancers (students and faculty!!) and the second features a soloist playing the accordion part on melodica, which sounds fantastic.
Sincere thanks to these bands and the many others who’ve embraced the joy of the Tango.
Arroyo High School Knights Jazz Band performs "Tonight, We Tango" at "2018 Spring Spectacular", Featuring Arroyo Dance Department.
Arlington Jazz Machine plays Tonight, We Tango.
Here’s the first halftime show of the year from the Penn State Blue Band. They did a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald.
For this show I arranged Summertime (show opener) and It Don’t Mean a Thing (closer). In the middle is a smokin’ arrangement of That Old Black Magic that has been in their library for years.
Enjoy!
