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LIVE OUTDOOR MUSIC – HERITAGE FESTIVAL, Saturday, June 26, 2021

Ready for LIVE outdoor music by our own SUPER TALENTED LOCAL MUSICIANS? It’s coming! Full Day of Music scattered throughout the day and evening at the HERITAGE FESTIVAL, Saturday, June 26, starting at 10:00 AM:  Where? Chautauqua Amphitheater below the library. Sponsored and produced by Mark Barnett & the Siloam Music Festival.

We will feature Bluegrass with perhaps the best jazz guitarist and best mandolin players in NW Ark; Patriotic music with the Siloam Community Band, lead by SSHS Band Director, Daniel Hodge; a Siloam Community Choir lead by JBU Cathedral Director, Steven Hamilton; an 18-member Siloam Big Band w/ a combination of pop, religious, jazz, patriotic, and contemporary classical; a Variety Show w/ the Community Choir, vocal soloists, and instrumentalists. A local street musician, Wendy Bailey, will also be performing for us in-between some of the musical shows.

The day will end with a full evening Concert starting at 7:30 PM, highlighting most of the popular selections from the day, and finish with a Big Band rendition of America the Beautiful with Kim Hayes, a local professional vocal soloist, followed by the famous Wilhousky arrangement of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, combining the Community Band, Big Band, and the Community Choir.

So dress in your shorts, bring your chairs, sunscreen, blankets, hats, umbrellas, family, friends, and whatever else you need to have a FABULOUS day/evening, and also enjoy the more than 40 other community groups coming to support our Siloam Springs Museum and share our rich history and culture at Twin Springs Park. Starts at 9:00 AM. Opening ceremony by our local Girl Scouts will be at 10:00 at the Amp.

Others featured in the afternoon 2:30 Variety Show along with the Community Choir will include:  

• Kim Hayes, vocalist:  Past winner of the National Association of Teachers Singing (NATS), and currently a member of the Alaska Chamber Singers.  She’s a graduate of SSHS and JBU and now teaches music at an elementary school in Anchorage.  Kim will also perform a vocal solo (America, the Beautiful) with the Big Band.
• Becky Riggs, vocalist:  Former and now retired Choir Director at Siloam Springs High School (33-years).  Becky was a member of the famous chorale at Fayetteville High School under the direction of Don Wright that won many national competitions.  She will also perform a vocal solo (People Get Ready) with the Big Band. 
• Rayce Coyle, guitarist:  Masters graduate of Berklee College School of Music in Boston. Founder and lead engineer of Windowpane Studios in Siloam Springs. We welcome Rayce to Siloam Springs.
• Dan Phillips, vocalist/guitar:  A Bassoon Performance major in college and later a band director, Dan is currently the Director of Worship and Arts at the First United Methodist Church. He has performed in several symphonies in Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, and has been a part of the Celtic Festivals in the south.  He will be performing a vocal/guitar Celtic song or two for those with Irish descent and also for the rest of us who love that fun genre of music. Dan will also perform a vocal solo (You Raise Me Up) with the Big Band. 

About the Siloam Music Festival (SMF):  Begun in 2012, the purpose of SMF is to promote and support local musicians by producing live concerts to showcase local talent at different venues around the city.  These settings have included Camp Siloam, First Baptist Church, Community Christian Church, JBU’s Berry Performing Arts Center, SSHS Performing Arts Center, and two different home concerts.  Average audience for public events has ranged from 300-800.  We even had 118 at one of the home concerts.

From 2012-2014 the SMF produced nine-concerts that highlighted over 230 local musicians.  Two of these festivals showcased high school students and their band and choir directors from Siloam Springs, Ozark Academy, and Gentry. I ended up moving away from Siloam in 2015, but am now just getting back to producing these music festivals again, even though I still live about 5-hours away in Lawrence, Kansas.

One of the special projects SMF has taken on has been to give young musicians with long-term music ambitions a chance to perform a concerto (solo) with a chamber orchestra, something they may never get a chance to do otherwise in their lifetime.  Michael Allard, bassoonist, was the first, performing Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerto.  After getting a Bachelor’s degree in Bassoon Performance at DePaul and his Masters at SMU, he is now a bassoonist for the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra.

Christopher Barnett, was the second, performing Mozart’s Oboe Concerto. After getting his undergraduate degree in Music Education (Oboe performance), he went on to get his Masters in Music Composition at the UA.  He now plays keyboard for Fellowship Bible Church in Rogers and continues to compose and arrange various musical tunes.

Deborah Caldwell will be the next to have this honor.  She earned a Doctorate in Trumpet Performance at the University of Georgia, and now teaches Instrumental Studies at Erskine College in South Carolina.  She is also a member of the Kings Brass, a traveling sacred music brass ensemble that gives concerts along the east coast. She will be performing Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto, perhaps in the SMF Fall Concert in November.

More young musicians will be considered to continue this tradition.

Two high-end concerts were planned for last year (2020), but of course, had to be postponed. As mentioned, perhaps we can reschedule one of those for later this year. Stay tuned for more details on that.

Siloam Music Festival, produced by Mark Barnett.