Long winded title I know!

So here is the thing, I'm planning a 45 minute concert for school children to be performed by Symphonic Wind band/Military band.

In one of the items I would like to feature different sections of the band either individual sections or as WW, Brass and Percussion.

The main requirement is that there are at least 3 contrasting extracts that ideally (though not necessarily) feature the instruments in a way that suits them best.

I have done this once before and used the music from Pirates of the Carribbean which worked pretty well. However I would like to do something different this time with something a bit more recent or iconic if possible.

I thought I'd throw this out to the collective wisdom of the group and see what ideas come up.

Thanks in advance,

Hamo.

I play in a local community band where we dedicate our winter concert to school aged children. We played excerpts of Yankee Doodling by Daniel Kallman that features all of the instruments. It is a long piece with narration so we just did the introduction and a few of the specific instruments.

There might be arrangements of Peter and The Wolf, Carnival of the Animals, and the Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra. Those are the two that come to mind for orchestra.

Depending on your band's level and the sophistication of your audience, I have had good effect from both:

Carnival of the Animals: <YOUTUBE id="T76Jlds9GNk">https://youtu.be/T76Jlds9GNk</YOUTUBE>

and

Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra (Band) - the performance is not the issue here, it's the composition.

<YOUTUBE id="eYlvxyRtcYE">https://youtu.be/eYlvxyRtcYE</YOUTUBE>

(The above was posting while I was writing, but I'll let the redundancy stand as a "me too". :biggrin: )