Commissioning Johan de Meij a music composition

Rockville Concert Band has a long history of bringing people together. The Rockville Concert Band was founded in 1957, and is supported by the City of Rockville, MD. The band plays a variety of music including classical transcriptions, original compositions for concert band, pops, Dixieland, marches, musicals, jazz, rock, patriotic songs, and novelties. The Rockville Concert Band has performed on the Capital Ellipse, as entertainment for White House visitors; at the President’s Cup Regatta; at the Bicentennial celebrations in Philadelphia; for Flag Day ceremonies; for college commencement exercises; for special celebrations and at various parks in the city of Rockville.

During the past year and a half our fellowship as a group has been limited like many other groups, families, and organizations and we have felt a sense of loss and see music as our outlet to express our loss and ignite our hope for a renewed time together and a brighter future.

We decided as a group to commission a musical piece to document this transition from loss to hope and feel that our selected composer, Johan de Meij, has captured those emotions in the piece he has drafted and is finalizing for us and the world.

We hope that this composition adds to the growing sense of hope in the local and world community as well as adding to the world’s concert band repertoire.

Rockville Concert Band is sponsored by the City of Rockville, Maryland and the city has also graciously chosen to sponsor a portion of the cost of this composition.

Dutch composer and conductor Johan de Meij received his musical training at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, where he studied trombone and conducting. His award-winning oeuvre of original compositions, symphonic transcriptions and film score arrangements has garnered him international acclaim and have become permanent fixtures in the repertoire of renowned ensembles throughout the world. His Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings was awarded the prestigious Sudler Composition Prize and has been recorded by myriad ensembles including The London Symphony Orchestra, The North Netherlands Orchestra, The Nagoya Philharmonic and The Amsterdam Wind Orchestra.

The piece will be premiered on 13 March 2022 in Rockville. A list of the contributors will be included in the program and we would be honored if you would join us.

Our Director, Juan Gallastegui, and the members of the Rockville Concert Band are all members of the larger community and we invite you to be patrons of the arts and to help fund this artistic endeavor. Please help us bring new music and new hope into the world by contributing to this effort! Become a patron of the arts by contributing today!