A Musical Ode to Community
On Sunday, March 2, 2025, the San Francisco Pride Band presented a concert celebrating all of the ways that music brings us together. Pete Nowlen, then Artistic Director of the concert band, chose a diverse array of composers for this program, and each piece is a testament to music as a force for change and a tool for building community.
The full program included:
- Vulnerable Joy, Jodie Blackshaw
- V. O. C., Helmsman of the Sea, Shruthi Rajasekar
- Among My Souvenirs, John Philip Sousa (ed. Tam)
- American Hymnsong Suite, Dwayne S. Milburn
- “Crescent Moon Dance” from Sound! Euphonium, Akito Matsuda
- Suite from María de Buenos Aires, Astor Piazzolla
Highlights included Vulnerable Joy by Jodie Blackshaw and Among My Souvenirs, a whimsical humoresque by the prolific John Philip Sousa. In 2015, the San Francisco Pride Band gave Among My Souvenirs its first performance by any band in living memory, after band member Kevin Tam unearthed and edited it.
Vulnerable Joy is Blackshaw’s paean (a song of praise or triumph) to the mother humpback whale, one of nature’s most resilient creatures. The piece channels the intense joy of the humpback whale after she migrates thousands of miles to birth her calf, conveyed in part by rhythmic chants from members of the band at the beginning and end of the piece.
This was also the San Francisco Pride Band’s first performance at Freight & Salvage, marking the concert band’s premiere in Berkeley after more than 46 years.