One of the newest members of the Mercer County Symphonic Band is James Yeh, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School, Class of 1997, who joined the band last January. He will play the tuba in the annual concert featuring traditional band music, holiday tunes, and patriotic songs. Audience participation is invited for the sing-along of holiday music. The free concert is at Mercer College’s Kelsey Theater on Wednesday, December 19, at 8 p.m.##M:[more]##
Yeh, who graduated from University of Michigan with a double major in political science and history, is a software support administrator with Johnson & Johnson in Titusville. He recently moved to Holland, Pennsylvania.
“After I graduated from college, people suggested that I join the Mercer community band, but I didn’t have an instrument then,” says Yeh, who realized how much he missed playing after going to homecoming two years ago in Michigan.
“I bought my own tuba for the first time ever, and I started looking for a band to justify the purchase,” says Yeh. Mike Davis of Plainsboro, the father of his friend, Brian Davis, played for the band, and he said they were always looking for people, so he joined. “We’re going through some band classics that I played in high school, so it’s a trip down memory lane,” he says.
During his school years Yeh played multiple brass and string instruments and was in numerous band and orchestra groups. Yeh began playing violin in first grade when he was in the Lopatcong school district. “I did not play violin in school until sophomore year in high school, as most people were either in band or orchestra then, and I always picked band,” says Yeh, who also played the viola when needed.
A trumpet player in the Clinton School District, he started playing tuba halfway through fourth grade after the band director put out a call for volunteers to play tuba. In high school he did marching band, wind symphony, and jazz band for four years, and orchestra for three years. He played violin in the school’s pit orchestra in “Once Upon A Mattress,” “Sweet Charity,” and “Damn Yankees.” During his high school years he also played the baritone and euphonium, and picked up the trombone to play in jazz band. He played viola, tuba, and trombone during his three years with the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra. “Looking back, I have no idea how I was able to play in so many ensembles at once,” he says.
“I was in the University of Michigan Marching Band for one year, but I left because it was just taking up too much time,” says Yeh. “I kept playing in the Men’s Basketball Pep Band throughout college, as it didn’t take nearly as much time as marching band.” He also did two pit orchestra gigs with the local Gilbert and Sullivan society. In college he also worked at, and later because editor-in-chief of one of the campus journals, and was a member of the rifle team.
Yeh, who was born in Taiwan, came to the U.S. in 1984, and the family moved to West Windsor in the summer of 1991. His parents, Grant and Grace Yeh, still live in West Windsor.
Other band members in West Windsor and Plainsboro include Dave Halter, Mike Davis, Marty Timins, Anthony Travaglione, and John Roeder.
The first part of the program includes “National Anthem,” “The Footlifter,” a march by Henry Fillmore; “Second Suite in F,” Gustav Holst; “A Symphonic Prelude,” Alfred Reed; “Thus Spake Zarathustra,” Richard Strauss; “Egmont Overture,” Ludwig van Beethoven; “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” John Williams.
The second half of the program features “Americans We,” a Henry Fillmore march; selections from “Les Miserables,” Schaumberg; “A Christmas Festival,” Leroy Anderson; two Chanukah tunes arranged by band director Lou Woodruff; “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers,” Leon Jessel; “A Canadian Brass Christmas,” arranged by Canadian Brass; “Sleigh Ride,” Leroy Anderson; and “Stars and Stripes Forever,” John Philip Sousa. — Lynn Miller
Fall Concert, Mercer County Symphonic Band, Mercer County College, Kelsey Theater, 609-584-9444. www.mccc.edu. Free. Wednesday, December 19, 8
