During the winter holiday season The Sound Dunes Swing Ensemble (SDSE) become involved in a number of celebrations of the season, both as an entire group and as partial supporter of other individual area events.  Many of these holiday events are public, but some of them are private and restricted to the membership of a particular organization.

SDSE actually kicked off this 2019 holiday season with a private event.  On Wednesday, December 4th, we participated in the annual holiday dance/concert for the residents of the Thirwood Place Senior Residence in Yarmouth.  The program consisted of a variety of holiday favorites, a sing-along, several resident/audience participation skits, and a Tango demonstration by a group from the Cape Cod Ballroom Dancers organization.

Attendees appeared to greatly enjoy the many familiar holiday tunes and the Cape Cod Ballroom Dancers stimulated a good number of audience members to join in and dance, as can be seen in the first of the photos that follow.  The second photo depicts several audience members participating in a (Rudolf the Red Nosed) reindeer skit, which although coming off a bit “uneven,” still appeared to delight the crowd in attendence.

On Halloween night 2019, in the early evening, The Sound Dunes Swing Ensemble (SDSE) participated in the 4th Annual Dennis Village Halloween Hootenanny & Parade organized by Dennis Village Locally Thrown Family Events. Participants in the event arrived decked out in costume on the grounds of the Cape Playhouse where the event took place. Festivities started at about 5:30pm with a Costume Parade along nearby streets and byways led by some of the more robust members of SDSE.  For their grueling effort to head up the parade (and to be ultimately out-shown by the many children marching in costume), we note the names of those “energetic” SDSE marchers….Dan Feheley, Lonny Gisetto, Mike Hays, Corey Russo, Barbara Shorts, Jim Stamboni, and Joe Wells.

After the parade the marchers returned to the Playhouse grounds where they joined the rest of the SDSE crew which treated the crowd to a concert of dance music and where the bulk of the festivities took place with the support of a great line-up of sponsors & food vendors. Everyone appeared to have a great time, full of picture taking and many more treats then tricks! Here are a few photos of the event (several courtesy of King Tide Creative) from the SDSE perspective….

Several members of The Sound Dunes donated their time as participants in Dennis Union Church’s (DUC’s) annual “Talent Show” fundraiser on Sunday, October 27th. The “Sound Dunes Combo” performed several songs including: Hello Dolly, Lazy River, Saints Go Marching In, All of Me, and Girl from Ipanema, the last two tunes featuring vocalist Carole Madru.  Members of the combo included: Carole on guitar as well as vocals, Corey Russo on keyboards, Laurie Lang on alto and soprano sax, Ed Wheldon on Clarinet, Bob Sneden on trombone, Bob Aumueller on Bass, Todd Shipman on drums, and Jim Stamboni on trumpet. the Town Hall to celebrate with food, live music by SDSE, and dancing.

The Sound Dunes Combo performed again recently for the Chatham Rotary luncheon at the Chatham Wayside Inn on Thursday, November 21st.

On Sunday, October 20th, The Sound Dunes Swing Ensemble (SDSE) performed during a fundraiser sponsored by The Alzheimer’s Family Support Center (AFSC) of Cape Cod. The band performed in the 2nd floor auditorium of the Provincetown landmark Town Hall building which also served as the focal point for the event fundraiser and Walk.

The fundraiser was well-attended by a very enthusiastic participating crowd of supporters.  After the walk, the participants gathered in the 2nd floor auditorium of the Town Hall to celebrate with food, live music by SDSE, and dancing.

On Friday, September 27th, The Sound Dunes Swing Ensemble (SDSE) performed at the Fall Frolic Dance sponsored by Harwich Council on Aging (HCoA). The dance was held in the auditorium of the Harwich Community Center.  Those who attended the FREE public event were treated to an assortment of Swing, Latin, Ballroom, and Jazz dance music, along with an occasional more recent selection.

The dance was a great success and very well attended.  The band was additionally delighted by the good number of people who danced during their performance.  The attached photos from the event give you an idea of the many dancers and toe-tappers who apparently greatly enjoyed themselves during the evening…