Skip to main content
The Olney Central College Music Department will present its Spring Concert at 7 p.m. on April 22 in the Dr. John D. Stull Performing Arts Center.
The evening will feature performances by the OCC Community Concert Band and Jazz Combo, under the direction of OCC Interim Director of Bands Jena Combs. Joining them as a special guest will be the Flora High School Band, directed by OCC alumnus Ethan Steber.
Combs is excited to include the high school students in the event, an idea that grew out of a conversation with Steber.
“We were talking about ways to get the community more involved, and the idea came up to invite high school bands to perform with us and feature them in a concert,” she said. “Ethan immediately volunteered his band to be the first. We thought it was a cool way to get people here and a great way to help with recruitment.”
Combs previously served as FHS band director before accepting a position at Lincoln Trail College in 2024 and assisting with OCC’s instrumental program this year. Steber completed his student teaching under Combs and later succeeded her as Flora band director.
The FHS band will present The Great Rubber Chicken Galop by Randall Standridge, American Riversongs by Pierre LaPlante and The Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi and arranged by James Curnow.
The high school students will then have an opportunity to perform with the OCC Community Concert Band and the OCC Jazz Combo as the three ensembles come together for the selection Shine on Me by Seattle-based composer and conductor Erin Keeton-Howard.
The OCC Community Concert Band, which brings together OCC students and area musicians, will perform Prestissimo by march-music composer Karl L. King with the arrangement by James Swearingen, Secret Valley by Michael Sweeney and Amazing Grace by Frank Ticheli, whose many works have become standards in concert band repertoire. Other pieces will include Nevermore and Reverberations by contemporary American composer, conductor and music educator Brian Balmages and Insurrection by composer Gary P. Gilroy.
Selections by the OCC Jazz Combo will include C Jam Blues by legendary jazz performer Duke Ellington and Someone to Watch Over Me by groundbreaking American composer and pianist George Gershwin. Other pieces include Sonnymoon for Two by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, Brasilian Skies by Masayoshi Takanaka and the Latin-rock hit Oye Como Va by Santana.
Combs invites the community to come out and enjoy this final instrumental performance of the semester. Admission is a free-will offering.
