North Pittsburgh Symphonic Band wraps up concert season

When his students learn that Sean Desguin actually plays an instrument, they often are surprised.

As Hampton Township School District’s elementary band director — he serves in several other music-related capacities, too — Desguin normally is instructing and leading, rather than performing.

But he has that latter opportunity through his participation in the North Pittsburgh Symphonic Band.

“I started as a tuba player about 20 years ago, right out of college, looking for a place to keep playing my instrument,” Desguin, who lives in Aspinwall, said.

He also is the group’s assistant conductor, swapping his low-pitched brass instrument for a baton during a couple of songs per show, and he’ll be doing both during the final symphonic concert of the 2022-23 season.

Scheduled for 3 p.m. May 7 at North Hills Middle School in Ross, the performance features a variety of genres, according to conductor and musical director R. Tad Greig.

“With our concert programming, we try to cover the gamut of styles. So there’s John Williams, which everybody will know and love,” Greig said about the now-91-year-old composer’s “Theme from Far and Away.”

“But at the same time, there are some very intricate and difficult — but I think, beautiful — music that we’re playing, too.”

Other pieces include Gustav Holst’s “Second Suite in F,” John Philip Sousa’s “Pathfinder of Panama,” and “American Overture” by Joseph Willcox Jenkins, a former head of the Theory and Composition Department in Duquesne University’s School of Music.

“I really like the fact that I’m never bored in this band. You always want to have stuff that the audience is tapping their toes to, but he’s really good about always making sure that there’s stuff that educates the audience, too,” French horn player Melissa Corso said about Greig’s repertoire selections. “There are at least three or four pieces every season I’ve never heard of, let alone played before.”

A resident of McCandless, Corso has served as president of the group’s board for the past decade. She and Desguin are participating in a side project of sorts, assisting fellow member Jess Haberman with an initiative in her position as band director for Northgate School District.

“We don’t have a full instrumentation,” she said about the modest-enrollment district’s ensemble of seventh- through 12th-graders. “And we came up with this idea about doing a side-by-side concert.”

North Pittsburgh Symphonic Band musicians will join the Northgate students on three songs during a performance at 7 p.m. May 18 in the middle school/high school auditorium. The selections are “Arabian Dances” by Brian Balmages, “Moving at the Speed of Sound” by Mark Lortz and “Music for a Darkened Theatre (The Film Scores of Danny Elfman),” arranged by Michael Brown.

“We’re excited to do it. We very easily filled all the spots that she was looking for with our folks,” Desguin, who formerly taught in Quaker Valley School District, said. “I’ll get to just play on all three tunes. Jess is conducting.”

A clarinetist, Haberman has played with the North Pittsburgh Symphonic Band since 2013. This is her ninth year at Northgate, where she also leads the jazz and marching bands, along with co-directing this spring’s musical, “Newsies.”

The scholastic collaboration is a first for the symphonic band, as part of an effort to make more connections within the community.

“The primary blessing of this group is these people are here for all the right reasons. They’re here because they just want to make good music. They’re not getting paid. They’re giving up their time,” Greig said. “The audience continues to grow, and we couldn’t be more excited to have more people come and share music with us.”

For more information, visit www.npsband.org.