USA Wind Ensemble Spring Concert April 14 at Laidlaw!!

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Posted on April 11, 2016 by Keith Bohnet

Keith Bohnet

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As part of the 2016 Alabama All-State Band Festival, the USA Wind Ensemble will perform the host band concert on Friday evening, April 15 at 8:00 p.m. in the historic Saenger Theatre in downtown Mobile. If you can't make the Friday concert, please consider yourself invited to see a preview of the performance at the on-campus USA Wind Ensemble concert on Thursday, April 14th, at 7:30 p.m. in the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center.

Tickets for this Musical Arts Series event will be sold at the door only. Admission is $8 general and $5 for USA faculty & staff, USA students, youths under 18 and all senior citizens (cash or check only). Persons needing more information about this event or in need of special accommodation may call (251) 460-7116 or (251) 460-6136.

About the concert

The program for the evening opens with Steven Bryant's rousing Ecstatic Fanfare, a work that derives its material from Bryant's Ecstatic Waters. Dr. Greg Gruner, Chair of the Department of Music and former Director of Bands at USA from 1993-2014 will lead the group in Gustav Holst's masterpiece Second Suite in F. Dr. Will Petersen then steps to the podium to conduct Ray Cramer's transcription of Grainger's 1903 work, Near Woodstock Town.

The USA Wind Ensemble welcomes our newest faculty member Dr. Kip Franklin, in Scott McAllister's Black Dog, led by Dr. Will Petersen, Director of Bands at the University of South Alabama. Franklin serves as Assistant Professor of Music (Clarinet) at USA and is in demand nationally as a performer and pedagogue.

Following a short intermission, the USA Wind Ensemble opens the second half of the concert with Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Jesters" from the Snow Maiden. This transcription has quickly become a favorite on concerts across the country and is now a standard work in the wind band repertoire. The performance concludes with Frank Ticheli's monumental 2003 composition for wind ensemble, Symphony No. 2. Dedicated to the late James Croft, its three virtuosic movements provide a rousing close to the concert.

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Need directions to Laidlaw? Just go to Google Maps at www.maps.google.com and enter "USA Laidlaw Performing Arts Center." We're actually on the corner of University Blvd. and USA Drive South.

Musical Arts Series Season Pass Holders may now reserve their place at concerts if they contact events coordinator Keith Bohnet by 5:00 p.m. the day previous to the event! Call (251) 460-7116 or email kbohnet@southalabama.edu. Please mention the amount of seats needed AND be sure you are planning on being in place at least 20 minutes in advance of the concert! (Pass Holders only please! Held seats not claimed within 20 minutes of the performance may be offered to other concert attendees.)

For information on how to join the Musical Arts Society, visit our website at www.southalabama.edu/music and click on "events and programs" to see everything you need to know about the Musical Arts Concert Series and USA's Musical Arts Society.

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