Music of 1965 to be heard at Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble concert
To honor the 50th anniversary of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s founding, the University’s Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble will feature selected melodies from 1965 in their final concert of calendar year 2015, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, in the Cofrin Family Hall of the Weidner Center of the Performing Arts.
Associate Prof. Kevin Collins, director of bands, is the conductor.
The UW-Green Bay Symphonic Band will open the program with music from the Broadway hits Man of La Mancha, which opened its stage run in 1965, and The Sound of Music, which was adapted as a major motion picture that same year. The Mitch Leigh music for La Mancha is best remembered for the song “Impossible Dream.” The Rodgers and Hammerstein score for Sound of Music spun off numerous still-familiar melodies; the 43 instrumentalists of the Band will be joined by vocalists Lauren Paul, mezzo soprano, and Lane Ludtke, tenor. As part of its set, the Symphonic Band will also perform music of the holiday season with an arrangement of the Percy Grainger composition “The Sussex Mummers Christmas Carol.”
Following a brief intermission, the 30-member Wind Ensemble will take the stage, beginning with a performance of “Variations on a Korean Folk Song,” arranged by John Barnes Chance. They will follow with Norman Dello Joio’s “Scenes from the Louvre,” which features five different movements: “The Portals,” “Children’s Gallery,” “The Kings of France,” “The Nativity Paintings,” and the “Finale.” The third selection is the Sousa march “Wisconsin Forward Forever,” dating to 1917. Closing the concert, and dating to UW-Green Bay’s earliest days is the “UW-Green Bay Alma Mater.” Lovell Ives of the Music faculty arranged the hymn-like melody — simple to sing and dignified — and poet Peter Stambler of the Humanistic Studies faculty provided the words, alluding to the mythical Phoenix bird, the UWGB mascot. The alma mater was introduced at May 1981 commencement in a solo performance by choral Prof. Trinidad Chavez.
Tickets for the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band concert are $10 for adults, and $5 for students and seniors. Call (920) 465-2400 or visit www.uwgb.edu/tickets. UW-Green Bay is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Music. For more information visit www.uwgb.edu/music.
