Southwestern Michigan College’s fifth annual Bands Clinic Day Feb. 14 featured six area school bands and almost 350 musicians critiqued by University of Michigan Director of Bands Jason K. Fettig to polish March Southwestern Michigan Band and Orchestra Association (SWMBOA) festival programs.
Fettig, 28th conductor of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band and Chamber Orchestra, served as White House music advisor to two of the five presidents he worked for and regularly conducted the Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra at the executive mansion.
John Philip Sousa, “The March King,” was the 17th conductor, from 1880-1892, and performed in Dowagiac.
Fettig led the musical program for the inaugurations of President Donald J. Trump and President Joseph R. Biden and the State Funeral of George H.W. Bush.
Like Sousa, Fettig served as music director of Washington, D.C.’s, Gridiron Club.
Performances under his baton have occurred in 49 U.S. states as well as Japan, the Czech Republic, Austria and The Netherlands.
Live concerts have been regularly heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” and on national television broadcasts from the White House, on “The Today Show,” the “David Letterman Show” on PBS, NBC and CBS.
He has worked with such pop superstars as Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks and Lady Gaga.
SMC Director of Bands Mark Hollandsworth’s Symphonic Band rehearsed with Fettig Thursday night to present “National Emblem March.” For Hollandsworth’s musicians, of whom about 60 percent are not music majors, it was an opportunity to road-test selections for “Legend,” the winter concert at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28. There will also be a percussion clinic that day.
Visiting bands included: Marcellus High School Concert Band, Katy Essex, director; Watervliet High School Band, Jennifer Hollandsworth, director; Bangor High School Concert Band, Tianna Doe, director; Buchanan High School Symphonic Band, Matthew Orsillo, director; Lakeshore High School Symphonic Band; Matthew Pagel, director, and Christopher Grapis, assistant director; and Berrien Springs High School Wind Symphony, Kelly Rosselit, director.
Clinic Day, introduced on Valentine’s Day in 2020 and canceled by COVID-19 in 2021, resumed in 2022 in the theatre of the Dale A. Lyons Building on the Dowagiac campus. It is co-sponsored with Quinlan and Fabish Music Co., Stevensville.
Each band receives a similar experience of an hour on stage, playing festival selections, with the remaining time devoted to tips from Fettig, who began his 26 years with the Marine Band as a clarinet player.
