Advance Guard / COMPOSERS

NEWS FLASH!

ATTENTION! During the Advance Guard’s last interstellar Concert tour and the promotion of our Artists works showings at local Planetary Galleries, Our Idris-P Corvette Star ship was ruthlessly attacked by unknown Pirates. 3 Musicians and 1 Visual Artist were killed. These braggarts and roughnecks ransacked and stole all our Orchestra Instruments as well as our Shuttle crafts and Armament. In addition they took our 3 year grant allotment that covers all our expenses for the next 3 years. Right now we are broke and all concert tours canceled. They took our Idris-P Corvette Star ship and left us stranded in escape pods. Luckily we were picked up and rescued. We are determined, every Musician, Composer, Writer, Poet, Visual Artist and all associated with the Advance guard Philharmonic Orchestra to get back our instruments and grant funds from these braggarts. With our smaller ships some of us are in the process of raising funds from cargo runs and other like endeavors while some of us are out hunting those Pirates to recover our lost heritage. We are in a fight for the very survival of the Universes Premier Orchestra! Please join us, we need all the help we can get. A Stradivarius violin priced in the late 20th century went for about $2,000,000. The price to replace just 1 of these priceless instruments today is over $80,000,000. Join us today and Fight for our Cultural Heritage and teach those Pirates a lesson they will sing to their graves. JOIN NOW!
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The 4 Branches of the Advance Guard

Exploring and Prospecting:

Our Exploring and Prospecting Members travel to the ends of the known Universe and this branch of the Advance Guard serve to gathering new riches and coordinates of great value to aid our Advance Guard to rebuild its funds (stolen by Pirates) to once again be able to resume our duties as a touring Orchestra throughout the Galaxy and our Military adjunct Marching bands and our other Musical and Artistic activities.

Cargo Runs and such:

This branch of the Advance Guard concentrates on doing daily Cargo runs interplanetary and through out the Universe and our of great value in rebuilding the Advance Guard’s funds (stolen by Pirates) so that eventually once again we will be able to resume our duties as a touring Orchestra throughout the Galaxy and our Military adjunct Marching bands and our other Member activities.

Battling Pirates & Never-do-wells:

With intelligence gained from the Advance Guard Infiltrator branch this branch of the Advance Guard seek out criminal and Pirate targets which may lead us to our stolen funds and ships; and they do battle everyday searching for our lost funds, ships and priceless instruments. Their goal is to eventually regain our original grant funds, ships and priceless instrurments from those Pirates that absconded with them that were originally granted to us from the Imperium and again enable us to resume our duties as a touring Orchestra throughout the Galaxy along with resuming our Military adjunct Marching bands and our other Musical and Artistic activities.

Spies & Infiltrators:

Musicians & Artists have often throughout history served a double purpose, besides their performances they often served to spy out intelligence and information. Our traveling Members are welcomed at all the various Pubs and Taverns of almost any Spaceport throughout the known Universe and this branch of the Advance Guard serve as excellent spies for infiltration and gathering of intelligence too. Some other Organizations including the Military from time to time make use of some members of this branch of the Advance Guard loaned out as it were for honorable employment for their needs to gather some intelligence for their uses as well.

This is nothing new.

In, September 1470, Edward IV had his life saved by Alexander Carlisle, his sergeant of minstrels, who roused him from dark sleep to warn of his enemies’ approach. The minstrels – with their freedom of movement – and that intimacy and trust with almost everyone could bear unexpected fruit. As Ian Arthurson writes, in his study of late medieval espionage, ‘The norm for spying was the itinerant… the individual who, “in a society in which mobility was indubitably an important characteristic”, would hardly be noticed.’ Minstrels fit that definition perfectly, he argues. ‘The status of such men, not merely their peregrinations, made them spies.’

Holinshed tells how King Alfred disguised himself as a minstrel and entered the Danish camp, ‘and was suffered to go into every part, and play on his instrument, as well afore the king as others, so that there was no secret, but that he understood it’. The story of Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew, disguising himself as a man ‘cunning in music and mathematics’ in order to enter Baptista’s house to woo Bianca.

One of Henry VIII’s spies, a musician, went so far as to add his own compostions to his dispatches for the king’s amusement; his code name was Alamire, or La Ri Me. Musicians, when they came to prominence in the 16th century, were just as useful as couriers or conveyers of intelligence. When Sir Philip Sidney was in the Netherlands with the Earl of Leicester in January 1586, he used ‘Will my Lord of Leicester’s jesting player’ to carry letters back home to his wife.

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History of The Advance Guard

The Advance Guard, founded in the year 2757, has a long & fruitful Cultural and Space faring History. We travel the Space ways,. the Final Frontier, In our Missions: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.. In Our Voyages; to explore strange new timbre, to seek out unknown Music traditions and unfamiliar Music cultures, to boldly go where no musician has gone before..

We, the Advance Guard, tour the Universe with our Advance Guard Philharmonic Symphony members to support, maintain, operate and promote interstellar Symphonic Concerts throughout the known reaches of the Universe.

The Advance Guard Composers Orchestra enriches lives by nurturing the creative spirit of composers and communities throughout the known Universe. We provide new opportunities for composers on many planets and aid their music to flourish throughout the Stars. We engage planetary communities throughout many Star Systems in the creation, performance and enjoyment of New Substantive Music.

Founded in 2757, by the Composer Richard Byron Strunk II (A direct descendent of the 20th-21st century composer Richard Byron Strunk known for his 1,000’s of Variations) as the Advance Guard Composers Orchestra, our organization has grown over the centuries from an innovative one planet regional initiative into one of the galaxy’s premier touring Symphonic Orchestras and composer service organizations. Today, our Substantive music programming reaches audiences, composers and communities in all 50 Major inhabited Star Systems.

Today the Advance Guard Composers & Artists Alliance also aids with Visual Artists and those working in other Artistic mediums with Gallery Showings all along the Concert Tour routes; getting their works shown through out the Galaxy. This Composers & Artist Alliance (One branch of the Advance Guard) helps all our members to engage with many inter-planetary communities with Music, Paintings, Dance, Graphical Arts and Poetry as a source of inspiration, self-reflection and delight. This engagement takes the form of groundbreaking Composer and Artists residencies, designed to engage communities in the creative process and broaden the contexts in which Substantive New music and New Art is created, performed and experienced. It means innovative approaches to teaching Music and Art while nurturing the next generation of Composers, Artists, Performers and Audiences.

The Advance Guard supports Artists’ and Composers’ artistic and professional growth through a rich variety of programs and services, including commissions, performances, readings and fellowships.

The Advance Guard’s 2,000 members include Music & Arts lovers, Composers, Visual Artists, Poets, Dancers and many kinds of performers, presenters and organizations that share the Advance Guard’s goals, and individuals and institutions with an interest in supporting New Substantive Music and Fine Arts. Members come from both urban and rural areas; from out on the far edges of the Galaxy into the central inner Planets heavily populated civilized hubs. Our members work in virtually every Serious musical tradition, including orchestral and chamber music, “world” music, opera and music theater, Jazz and improvisational music, Electronic and Electro-acoustic music, and sound art.

In addition to the tangible benefits of membership (newsletters, invitations to events, and access to grant, fellowship, and residency opportunities), members are part of a inter-galactic community of Artists who share common concerns, aspirations, and goals.