Richard Summers has been Principal Clarinet, Assistant Conductor, and frequent featured soloist for the Ridgewood Concert Band for 20 years. Originally from Wheeling, West Virginia, Mr. Summers joined the USMA Band at West Point (72-75) playing both clarinet and alto saxophone. He then attended the Juilliard School of Music (75 – 79), receiving both his Bachelor and Master Degrees in Music Performance on clarinet. His credentials also include Music Certification from William Paterson College (80-81).

Mr. Summers has held both teaching and performing positions. His music teaching credits include leading the band programs at Kinnelon High School (81-85), Pequannock Township High School (85-05), and Pequannock Valley Middle School (05-present). He was also Director of Band and Professor of Clarinet at William Paterson College/University (92-99). His performance credits include serving as clarinetist with The New Jersey Pops Orchestra and Concert Band and saxophonist with the New Jersey Pops Jazz Band (96 – 03). He also played principal clarinet with the William Paterson Orchestra and New Music Ensemble during his academic appointment at the University.

Mr. Summers enjoys playing jazz and performing in musicals at area high schools. He has started various music technology related classes at his middle school and enjoys working on the computer using music software programs for notation, recording and sequencing.

Janet Vidovich

Janet Vidovich has been a member of the Ridgewood Concert Band for 16 years. She is also principal clarinet with the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra and free-lances in the North Jersey area. Janet is a graduate of Montclair State University, where she studied clarinet with Arthur H. Christmann. Her teaching experience runs the gamut of all ages. She has been a middle school band director in Wayne, woodwind specialist in the Caldwell and Essex Fells districts and most recently at the Delbarton School in Morristown for 25 years. Janet has also taught at Montclair State and is currently an Affiliate Artist at Drew University.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847) arrived in Munich in September 1831 as one stop on his two-year grand tour of Europe. It was here that he was inspired to write an original Concertpiece for the brothers Carl and Heinrich Bärmann esteemed clarinet virtuosi of the day. The work is disposed in three movements (fast-slow-fast) and requires a masterly technique that serves as testimony to the highly developed skills of the soloists. The opening Presto of the Concertpiece No. 2 is a most dramatic movement; the Andante is animated by an incessant, wide-ranging broken-chord accompaniment; and the closing movement is a scintillating showpiece for the paired clarinets.

Steven Bryant composed this work for the USAF Band of Mid-America to demonstrate their musical virtuosity and to honor their commitment to excellence as members of the US Air Force. The concerto grosso design evolved into three antiphonal groups of players placed outside the stage ensemble to form a diamond as a reflection of the core formation of the USAF Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron. The trumpet and clarinet at the back of the hall serve as mirrors of the fifth pilot who spends most of the air show flying inverted. The work is cast in five movements and calls for a true one-on-a-part challenging wind ensemble performance presented by the RCB this evening as the composer intended.

Steven Bryantis an active composer and conductor with a varied catalog, including works for wind ensemble, orchestra, electronic and electro-acoustic creations, chamber music, and music for the web.

Steven's music has been performed by numerous ensembles across North America, Europe, and East Asia. He is a two-time winner of the National Band Association's William D. Revelli Composition Award: in 2007 for Radiant Joy, and in 2008 for Suite Dreams. His first orchestral work, Loose Id for Orchestra, hailed by celebrated composer Samuel Adler as "orchestrated like a virtuoso," was premiered by The Juilliard Symphony and will be featured on an upcoming release by the Bowling Green Philharmonia on Albany Records. His most recent orchestral work, Alchemy in Silent Spaces, commissioned by James DePreist and The Juilliard School, was premiered by the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall in May, 2006.

Other notable commissions have come from the Japanese Wind Ensemble Conductors Conference, the United States Air Force Band of Mid-America, the Amherst Saxophone Quartet (funded by the American Composers Jerome Composers Commissioning Program), the Indiana University Wind Ensemble, the Calgary Stampede Band, and the University of Nevada Las Vegas Wind Orchestra. Other recordings include Eugene Corporon and the University of North Texas Wind Symphony, Ron Hufstader and the El Paso Wind Symphony, William Berz and the Rutgers University Wind Ensemble, and Thomas Leslie and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Wind Orchestra. Steven has also created a recomposition of the Iggy Pop and the Stooges song, "Real Cool Time," for the independent Italian record label, Snowdonia, as well as music for portions of the Virtual Space Tour at space.com.

Steven is a founding member (along with Eric Whitacre, Jonathan Newman, and Jim Bonney) of the composer-consortium BCM International: four stylistically-diverse composers from across the country, dedicated to enriching the repertoire with exciting works for mediums often mired in static formulas. BCM's music has generated a following of thousands around the world, and two recordings: "BCM Saves the World" (2002, Mark Custom Records) and "BCM Men of Industry" (2004, BCM Records).

Steven studied composition with John Corigliano at The Juilliard School, Cindy McTee at the University of North Texas, and Francis McBeth at Ouachita University. He resides in Durham, NC. For more information, please visit his website at http://www.stevenbryant.com.