LBMS Winter Concert Had Jazz, Harry Potter and PowerPoint

It's winter concert season for Long Beach Schools, and that means the Middle School Band Concert delivered a full repertoire for a full house of family and friends recently.

The jazz band opened the program with "Man in the Mirror" and finished their three-song set with "Don't Stop Believin'." The seventh-grade band followed with a performance that included a rousing rendition of "The Avenger March." The wind ensemble played two pieces by composer Ed Huckeby and a crowd-pleasing rendition of "Suite from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

The eighth-grade band performed four songs in synchronization with PowerPoint presentations of landscape and wildlife vistas that were projected on the walls of the auditorium. Their songs included "Critical Mass," "Earthdance" and "Saturn: The Ringed Planet."

The finale was a multimedia tribute to Michael Jackson that chronicled the evolution of his music and his career from childhood through adulthood. All four bands performed under the able conducting skills of band teacher Elizabeth Altbacker.