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 was 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 The Creation Story . 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 dare say 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 fatherin-law .
Kudos to a crackerjack team – The composers , Bandmaster Derek Lance , media creator Jay Knaggs , script writer Lauren Hodgson and devotional thought by Comm . 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 .
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