Westminster College Bands Offer Weekend of Music

The Westminster College Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, and Jazz Ensemble will offer a weekend of music Friday and Saturday, May 4-5, at 7:30 p.m. The Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band will perform at Orr Auditorium Friday, and the Jazz Ensemble will take the stage at Berlin Lounge in the McKelvey Campus Center Saturday.

"The Wind Ensemble is a 46-member ensemble chosen each year through audition and performs the finest in new and established band literature," said Dr. R. Tad Greig, director of instrumental activities at Westminster College. "They will perform Ovations by Andrew Boysen Jr., who received the prestigious Claude T. Smith Award for this composition. The program features one of the finest 20th century composers, Percy Grainger, and his The Immovable Do.

"The Wind Ensemble concludes its portion of the concert with Ghost Train by contemporary composer Eric Whitacre. Through the three movements, Ghost Train, At the Station, and The Motive Revolution, the composer infused some truly ingenious writing, depicting the movement of the train across the countryside, the hustle and bustle of the train station, and the re-appearance and disappearance of the ghost train into the dark distance. It's truly a 20-minute ride.'"

The Symphonic Band opens its program with Jamie Texador's Amparito Roca, a Spanish march. This march was chosen in tribute to the wonderfully successful performance tour of Spain by the College Wind Ensemble and Concert Choir this past December and January.

"The Symphonic band then performs one of the most famous compositions for band by Gustav Holst, First Suite in Eb," Greig said. "The band takes the listener on yet another tour, this time of Latin America. The Symphonic Dance #3 of Clifton Williams depicts the pageantry of the Fiesta, its costumes, street bands and bull fights. The Symphonic band concludes their performance with John Philip Sousa's The Thunderer, dedicated to the Knights Templar of Washington, an organization that had knighted Sousa."

The concert will conclude with the bands combining to perform the Westminster College alma mater, The Westminster Hymn, which was commissioned by the College Wind Ensemble, premiered in 2005, and arranged by composer Cormac Canon.

The musical weekend continues with the Westminster College Jazz Ensemble under the direction of trumpet professor Andrew Erb. They will perform: Time for a Change written by Hank Levey for the Stan Kenton Band; The Jody Grind by Horace Silver and written for the 2004 Tri-C Jazz Festival; I Be Serious About Dem Blues written and recorded by the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra; and an interesting Boris Kozlov arrangement of the Charles Mingus classic Opus 4; and Manbo from West Side Story.

The events are free and open to the public. Contact Greig at (724) 946-7279 or e-mail greigrt@westminster.edu for more information.

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