April 21 Band/Wind concert addresses a sustainable future

“Building a Sanctuary for our Sustainable Future” is the inspiration for a concert Wednesday (April 21) by the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Symphonic Band and Wind Symphony, joined by the “State Bound” Honors Band.

“This concert will feature elements in support of the campus Common Theme, ‘Realizing our Sustainable Future,’ highlighting diverse ways that UW-Green Bay provides safe haven for the mind, spirit and nature,” said UW-Green Bay Director of Bands, Kevin Collins.

The concert, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Cofrin Family Hall of the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts, will be presented in a collage format, with groups taking turns throughout the performance. Professors Michelle McQuade Dewhirst and Adam Gaines will be featured soloists.

The concert will open with the Honors Band performing Timothy Mahr’s “Flourish,” a work commissioned in 1996 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the UW-Green Bay Summer Music Camps. The piece begins with a two note motive G/B flat which then grows or “flourishes,” embodying within it UW-Green Bay’s environmental mission.

Next, Prof. McQuade Dewhirst will perform as a horn soloist with the Wind Symphony on Frank Ticheli’s “Sanctuary,” an image-laden work that the composer says explores the possibilities of a place of “comfort, rest, prayer and protection.”

“The image of a sanctuary resonates for me personally as our campus is literally at the hub of a sanctuary,” said Collins. “ April 21 is also John Muir’s birthday. And Muir, a Wisconsin native and University of Wisconsin student was responsible for some of our most important national sanctuaries. So, we’ll be celebrating that also.”

One of the highlights in the second half of the concert will be the jazz-inspired “Elegy for Miles Davis” by Richard Bennett, in which the Wind Symphony will be joined by Prof. Gaines on trumpet and Chris Salerno on piano.

Other works during the concert include “Sleep” by Eric Whitacre; “Dancing in the Wind” by Japanese composer Yosuke Fokuda; “Bugs” by Roger Cichy; “Variations on A Shaker Melody” by Aaron Copland; and “Amazing Grace,” also by Ticheli.

The State Bound Honors Band is an honors group comprised of high school students from many districts in Northeastern Wisconsin.

Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students and seniors, and are available at the Weidner Center Ticket Office. Tickets can also be ordered at (920) 465-2217 or 1-800-328-8587, or online at www.uwgb.edu/tickets.

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