Wear a homemade costume of your favorite science fiction movie character to the Dunedin Concert Band’s “Music From Outer Space” concert for the chance to win a prize!
Three awards and prizes ($50 for children under 12 and young people ages 12-18, and $100 for folks over 18), will be selected and presented during the Dunedin Concert Band’s Spring Concert performance on Sunday, April 10, 2022 at 3pm in the Dunedin Community Center – the day after the Dunedin Music Society’s Pinellas Festival of Community Bands in Oldsmar.
No matter who your favorite science fiction movie character is – Gremlins are welcome, too! – make a costume and attend the concert wearing it. You’ll be called up front and the audience will select the best costume by their applause, so bring your ENTIRE family, friends, and neighbors with you!
Anyone wearing a costume does not need to make a donation to attend the performance.
To improve your chances of winning
Base your costume on one of these movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Apollo 13, Back to the Future, Blade Runner, E.T., Star Trek, Superman, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Force Awakens, The Phantom Menace, or The Rocketeer. You’ll hear melodies from each of those movies during the concert!
It’s always best to register your attendance ahead of time, as Dunedin Concert Band performances fill up quickly. Visit https://mydms.co/outerspace for details and Advanced Registration. Donations of $18 per person are recommended ($12 for members of the Dunedin Music Society). This performance is suitable for adults and children over 7 years old.
Sunday, April 10, 2022, 3pm
Dunedin Community Center, 1920 Pinehurst Road, Dunedin, FL 34698
Attention young ladies: This amazing store is located in the International Plaza in Tampa. If you shop there in person on ANY MONDAY through April 11, they will donate 10% of all sales to the Dunedin Music Society! We are so thrilled with this partnership. If you love Anthropologie or boho styles, you will love this store. The management is wonderful too. #altardstate https://shopinternationalplaza.com/stores/altar-d-state
As the world shifts into a post-isolation era, the Dunedin Music Society is shifting its focus towards being CURIOUS, EAGER and RESPECTFUL. These are the characteristics that will define the culture of the DMS in 2022 and beyond.
Why?
How?
What does that even mean?
Let’s explore it…
In early 2020, when it became clear that we all had to isolate ourselves from each other, the DMS took one week off to determine what to do and how we were going to respond to “flattening the curve” for two weeks… which soon turned into two months. And ended up being on the verge of two years.
At that time, when both the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee met, we adopted a focused approach:
This focus allowed us to convert many of our planned in-person events to online activities, such as the three Virtual Band Festivals. The last one included 17 bands from all over the USA, and 13,000 viewers from all over the world!
Then, in late 2020 when our new fundraising consultant helped us launch our COVID Catch-Up Challenge (remember that ketchup bottle image? Yeah – we miss it, too!), we altered our approach slightly to:
That perspective influenced the operating boundaries when we decided what events to host, whether online or outdoors and, eventually in early 2021, indoors, too. The Pinellas Community Players continued live-streaming their concerts, and the Dunedin Concert Band rehearsed in Dunedin’s old Fire House alongside lawn mowers and tons of mulch… sometimes with the bay doors open (brrr…).
We still managed to host a total of 105 events in 2020, and 159 online and in-person public performance and educational events in 2021.
So what’s next?
Depending on which of the latest scientific findings you choose to follow – and, quite frankly, which media outlets, too – it appears as though COVID-19 is progressing through the normal stages of a virus life cycle and becoming a prevalent but less potent part of everyday life, much like influenza and other coronaviruses.
Yes, even when we have a common cold, we need to stay away from others, take precautions at home, and rest. However, as we learn to better incorporate potentially dangerous health concerns into our daily and possibly annual routines, it is clear that we no longer need to isolate quite as much as we have during these past two years.
Because of that, the DMS is returning to a mostly in-person schedule with a few online activities here and there.
The DMS has recovered from this isolation period, rebuilt itself, and is successfully reconnecting local communities with live music… and each other.
With that approach nearing its completion, what perspective do we take on now?
Be Curious
Curiosity is an attractive trait that has caused all manner of invention and discovery. Musicians who perform without knowing any of the social, historical, or musical context of the music they are performing are delivering a sub-standard service. They are selling the audience, the ensemble, and themselves short of a complete musical and emotional experience.
It’s good to be curious about who you’re performing alongside, too! A performer who played in one of our ensembles for several years has his name on a plaque currently beyond the boundaries of our solar system (yes, on one of the Voyager spacecrafts). Another has been performing and recording for the movie composer John Williams for three decades. Both of these incredible people have sat alongside other incredible people who are teaching high school biology, filling out tax forms for others, homeschool moms and dads, and corporate landscapers. Get to know the people around you – you’ll be amazed at the connections you make.
Be Eager
Wanting to learn, to grow, to know more, to do more, to contribute, to share, invite, encourage…
Helping society at large – and our local communities in particular – be better places to live; be better neighbors and workers; be better performers and listeners: Anyone willing to help others demonstrates a keenness that is admired, comforting, and beneficial to all.
But it starts with the individual who is willing to help get stuff done, help behind the scenes, help others with transportation, with cooking, with learning their part, supporting others conquer a more difficult part beyond their comfort zone, being willing to attend a concert with unfamiliar music… and sharing the experience with others.
Be Respectful
Our commercial consumerism has idolized the singer-songwriter, and “music” these days is more often than not associated with the lyrics that are added on top of the music. Music is its own language, the language of emotions. We don’t need lyrics while watching a movie and the music is driving and intense, or soft and romantic. The music creates the mood more than the action does. Music deserves much more respect than modern society gives it… music is more than songs.
In addition, it is good to respect each other as well – those who may have advanced musical experiences as well as those who are brand new at creating and sharing music. Those who listen to music deserve as much respect as those who perform it. Many musicians focus on what they have to offer, and don’t seem to mention that they are sharing something with an audience – what’s it like from their perspective? What are they experiencing?
So that’s the DMS approach beginning in 2022:
Curious, Eager, Respectful.
How do you choose to engage in these three concepts?
Boldly go where the force be with you: 
Then, in late 2020 when our new fundraising consultant helped us launch our COVID Catch-Up Challenge (remember that ketchup bottle image? Yeah – we miss it, too!), we altered our approach slightly to:
Depending on which of the latest scientific findings you choose to follow – and, quite frankly, which media outlets, too – it appears as though COVID-19 is progressing through the normal stages of a virus life cycle and becoming a prevalent but less potent part of everyday life, much like influenza and other coronaviruses.
