The Texas Tech University School of Music will host a band concert featuring the Symphonic Wind Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 3) in Hemmle Recital Hall. Director of bands Sarah McKoin and graduate conducting assistant Skye Brown will conduct the performance.
There will be a reception following the concert in the main hallway of the School of Music in order to afford an opportunity for the audience, student musicians, honored guests, and faculty to celebrate the students’ accomplishment.
The Symphonic Wind Ensemble’s performance, titled “Celebrations & Remembrance,” will present several works that either commemorate specific events or memorialize important composers and musical luminaries. Two of the pieces were originally written for wind band, and the other three works on the program are arrangements of music originally written for orchestra.
One of these arrangements, a lesser-known orchestral work by noted 20th-century Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, was arranged for band by Texas Tech School of Music alumnus Preston Mitchell. The work is titled “October,” and was originally written to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the revolutionary uprising of the Bolsheviks in 1917 – the so-called “October Revolution.” Shostakovich wrote “October” as part of the expectation by Soviet leadership for him to compose a work in celebration of this anniversary. It hints at a deeper, more secret personal commitment against at-home Communism by quoting previous works of his that celebrated the death of Stalin and fighting against oppressive regimes.
The “Jeremiah Symphony,” by celebrated American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, established Bernstein as a noteworthy American symphonist. It expresses the emotional arc of the Biblical story of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah, who foretold and lamented the fall of Jerusalem. The second movement of the symphony, titled “Profanation,” is a musical portrait of the destruction and chaos brought on by the corruption in the priesthood and the people. The Symphonic Wind Ensemble is performing it on this program to participate in the worldwide celebrations of the Bernstein Centennial, titled “Leonard Bernstein at 100.”
The brief “Requiem” by contemporary American composer David Maslanka was written in response to an event of the Holocaust during World War II. It is performed on this program in memory of Maslanka himself, who passed away in early August 2017. The overture to Gioachino Rossini’s opera “The Italian Girl in Algiers” is a fleet-footed and enthusiastic piece that departs from the seriousness of the rest of the program. It was chosen for the performance due to next year being the 150th anniversary of the composer’s passing. Graduate assistant Skye Brown will direct a performance of Ron Nelson’s quintessential band piece “Resonances I,” as a celebration of the artistry of winds, brass, and percussion taking the stage together.
The concert is free and open to the public.
CONTACT: Dr. Sarah McKoin, director of bands and professor of music, School of Music, Texas Tech University, (806) 834-8848 or sarah.mckoin@ttu.edu
