JULY 21-26, 2022 – After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the annual Camp Meetings in Old Orchard Beach, Maine reconvened this year and the New York Staff Band, under the leadership of B/M Derek Lance was on duty to provide musical ministry support to the camp meetings and to participate in two concerts.
The Camp Meetings themselves, with special guests Commissioner Lyndon (Chief of the Staff) and Bronwyn (World Secretary for Spiritual Life Development) Buckingham, started on Saturday, July 23rd, but the band made their way to Old Orchard on Thursday the 21st, for rehearsals on Thursday and Friday, as well as a joint concert with The Eastern Territory Staff Songsters, under the leadership of S/L Erik Jones.
The concert was held in the OOB Corps Chapel and was packed with local corps members and those who had come to vacation in Maine early. The concert began with James Curnow’s march Faith is the Victory (one of the 3 offerings from the band that evening that they recently recorded for their new album entitled At the Master’s Feet), followed by Richard Phillips beautiful arrangement of Churchbury. After a word of welcome and prayer from OOB Corps Officer, Major Daniel Brunelle, the band launched into Stephen Bulla’s Chorale and Toccata. The Staff Songsters followed that with two selections, I Will Rejoice (Michael W. Smith, arr. Andrew Blyth) and Why I Love Jesus (RSA). The band then featured their first soloist for the evening. Playing the trumpet solo Tico-Tico (arr Johen Iveson), Captain Jonathan Quatela wowed the attendees with a lively Latin sound. The band then ripped through Sandy Smith’s showstopper Valero.
There was a free will offering that was taken up to help The Salvation Army’s work in and around Ukraine. This was a moment of note as NYSB percussionist and Eastern Territorial Emergency Disaster Services Director Robert Meyers gave a stirring testimony of his deployment to Poland to help with the refugee crisis that is happening, as families leave Ukraine. Also, as the offering was being collected, Asst. Songster Leader Lily Finikin played a brand new and haunting piano piece entitled Dochka by Chris Brindley. The title Dochka means “daughter” in both Ukrainian and Russian thinking of the impact on every family, as if it was our own.
The ETSS then contributed two more items to the evening, Holy Ground (Geron Davis, arr. Paul Ferrin) and God So Loved The World (Sir John Stainer) and the NYSB featured principal euphonium Aaron VanderWeele, who played Evelyn Glennie’s A Little Prayer, prior to a devotional thought by the Executive Officer, Lt. Colonel Kathleen Steele. To close the concert, the band played James Curnow’s Trittico, which the band played well and reminded the listeners of the words to the tune:
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear
It soothes our sorrows, heals these wounds, and drives away our fear
It makes the wounded spirit whole
And calms the troubled breast
‘Tis manna to the hungry soul, and to the weary, rest
Dear Name! The Rock on which we build
Our shield and hiding-place
Our never-failing treasury, filled with boundless stores of grace
It was a great way to kick off the busy weekend ahead where the band played in support of the Camp Meetings. Some of the other repertoire over the weekend included: Marcus Venables’ In Awesome Wonder and The Conqueror, Philip Rayment’s Be Still and Know and Brian Bowen’s My Comfort and Strength. The selection chosen for Sunday Morning Worship Erik Leidzen’s classic At the Master’s Feet, which prepared the congregations hearts for Commissioner Buckingham’s sermon. The band also participated in a March of Witness on Sunday afternoon, as they took the long march down to the pier to the joyful strains of Cairo Red Sheild and joined the ETSS for a mini concert, to minister to the vacationers and supporting Salvationists.
Tuesday evening’s exciting concert, with the NYSB and ETSS, marked the end of the Camp Meetings. The first half kicked off with a brand-new offering by Marcus Venables entitled Hear the Call, which uses the tune O Church Arise in a Bolero setting. The ETSS then presented two contrasting items: Revival in the Land (Morris, arr. Don Hart), and Great are you Lord (Ingram, Leonard, Jordan, arr. Heather Sorenson). NYSB then played Andrew Wainwright’s The Risen King, and then featured Aaron VanderWeele as he made light work of the solo Endearing Young Charms (arr David Childs). We are told this is a difficult solo, but you wouldn’t be able to tell because Aaron played it with apparent ease. The ETSS were on their feet again with two more selections in Amazing God (Lee Fisher), and Healing Christ (Darren Bartlett). After Lt. Colonel Kathleen Steele read Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 (A Time for Everything), she set up the band’s final item for the first half, The Essence of Time by Peter Graham.
The NYSB brought people back to their seats to start the second half with Emil Soderstrom’s classic march Army of God. The bulk of the second half was then devoted to the premiere of The Creation Story, which the band tells through various musical items, narration, and media presentation. To give full description of the performance, we turn to former Executive Officer of the NYSB and the narrator for the evening, Colonel Richard Munn:
“New York Staff Band performance of ‘Creation’ – A Review
On the final evening of The Salvation Army 2022 Old Orchard Beach Camp Meetings the Seaside Pavilion audience witnessed another genre-breaking, boundary-setting performance by The New York Staff Band with Creation.
Make no mistake, this was special.
Some will remember a similar accolade for the orchestral symphony-length ‘The Glory of Jehovah’ in 2019 – well, the NYSB has remarkably done it again with a 45-minute narrated, multi-media-surrounded sequence of contrasting show tunes, worship songs, rock ballads and grand hymns. Those great tunes are energized and enlivened by the scintillating sound of brass.
Moving from profundity to playfulness in short order, the net effect kept us riveted to the accumulating momentum of the whole. Tunes from Hillsong, Coldplay, Electric Light Orchestra, Rio 2 and Little Mermaid were all arrayed, interplaying with the Genesis creation story as joyfully described by Eugene Peterson in the Message.
Here is the heart of the experience, the timeless mystery and sheer diversity of God’s creativity, with you and me, earthy humans, solely made in His image. The resplendent and cascading imagery of species diversity, galaxies, fauna, ocean and terrain constantly filled the backdrop screen, at times overwhelming in its color and form.
I daresay this is a Salvation Army banding first, and it worked, astonishingly, as witnessed by the dancing teens at the Pavilion perimeter, and the enraptured accolade of my aged Nazarene pastor father-in-law.
Kudos to a crackerjack team – The composers, Bandmaster Derek Lance, media creator Jay Knaggs, script writer Lauren Hodgson and devotional thought by Commissioner Buckingham.
This is a rich era for the NYSB, producing and performing brass pieces that are defining a generation, that will most surely spawn a succeeding season of compositions, performances, musicians and service.”
As a benediction to the evening the NYSB and ETSS joined forces and performed The Lord is Gracious (Bartlett, arr. Ritman).
After the long break due to the pandemic, it was wonderful to be back up in Old Orchard Beach and be able to worship God once again in the familiar grounds of the Seaside Pavilion. May God continue to bless the ministry of the New York Staff Band.
By Matt Hodgson & Mark Baker
