“In 2008, Marine Corps bandleader Brian Dix got the idea to compose a symphonic piece called ‘Madam President,’ just in case then-Sen. Hillary Clinton were to win the race for the presidency,” writes Pam Kragen in Wednesday’s (1/20) San Diego Union-Tribune. “Thirteen years later, the San Diego resident has finally premiered a new version of the piece…. Newly renamed ‘Madam (Vice) President,’ the jaunty 5-minute march debuted online Sunday to honor former California Sen. Kamala Harris…. To record the video, Dix recruited 45 women musicians from all over California who volunteered their time filming themselves playing their musical sections. Those videos were then assembled and produced into a finished film … The video can be seen online at youtube.com/user/artslaureate/videos. … ‘Madam President’ was scheduled to make its premiere in 2020 with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, but the pandemic led to the cancellation of the concert…. On Nov. 3 … Dix said his husband … told him to change the name of the piece. Less than a minute later, Bramwell Tovey, artistic director and conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, called with the same suggestion.” Dix was director of the U.S. Marine Drum & Bugle Corps in Washington, D.C. from 1998 to 2015.
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