The Sam Houston State University School of Music will present the Wind Ensemble as they perform several iconic works for Wind Band.
The Wind Ensemble is under music professor and director of bands Matthew McInturf, D.M.A. McInturf will lead the band through several pieces with graduate conductor Branden Hill taking the reins during one piece.
The band will perform Andreas Markis’s “Aegean Festival Overture,” which has become a part of their repertoire. This piece is an orchestral transcription that McInturf describes as a challenging and exciting dance constructed of complex rhythms and brilliant colors.
Also on the program for the night is American composer and Pulitzer Prize winner Norman Dello Joio’s “Fantasies on a Theme by Haydn.” This is one of Joio’s most famous works in the wind ensemble category, being performed thousands of times throughout the world.
Additionally, the band will perform an orchestration of Soviet composer Pavel Tschesnokoff’s “Salvation is Created,” which is cited as a choral work. Tschesnokoff’s work is considered sacred and is used in the communion service of the Russian Orthodox liturgy.
The final selection of the night and the band’s masterwork will be “Lincolnshire Posy” by Percy A. Granger. It is an original composition for band presented as a profound and colorful setting of six folk songs. McInturf said this evokes the tradition of folk-singing and depicts their singers.
McInturf, who is an advocate for new music, looks to commission new works by contemporary composers for the Wind Ensemble.
“Our next two performances will present more contemporary fare than this concert,” McInturf said. “We will perform as part of our Annual Contemporary Music Festival and present music by guest composer Samuel Adler. We will also give the premier performance of a work by our faculty composer Kyle Kindred entitled ‘Lux Aeterna.’”
The performance will be held in the Gaertner Performing Arts Center Concert Hall tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online, over the phone or onsite. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for senior citizens and $5 for students. Tickets can be purchased at the GPAC Ticket Office.
