Wyoming Arts Council

Festival of Winds begins at UW Feb. 18

Uncategorized | February 11, 2010

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From a UW press release:

The University of Wyoming’s annual Festival of Winds starts Thursday, Feb. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center concert hall in Laramie with a concert featuring the Department of Music’s top wind bands.

Michael Griffith will conduct the Wind Symphony and Brad Williamson will conduct the Symphonic Band for this free concert. Jennifer Turpen will perform as a saxophone soloist.

The Wind Symphony’s curtain-raiser will be Caesar Giovannini’s “Overture in B Flat.” Then Turpen will perform Maurice Whitney’s “Introduction and Samba,” a showpiece for the alto saxophone. Next is Daniel Buckvich’s “In Memoriam Dresden,” followed by H. Owen Reed’s “Michigan Morn.” The Wind Symphony will perform music from the Broadway musical, “Cats.”

The Symphonic Band will open with Robert Jager’s “Esprit de Corps,” a tribute to the United States Marine Corps Band. Next is “Of Sailors and Whales,” based on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Dave Walsh, the “Voice of the Cowboys,” will narrate this work. “The Jig is Up,” by Daniel Kallman, will be played next. The Symphonic Band will close with Robert Sheldon’s “Metroplex.”
Turpen, lecturer in the UW Department of Music, completed her M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in saxophone performance at the University of Georgia. She has performed throughout the United States as a soloist and in various quartets and is now the alto player in UW’s Globe Saxophone Quartet.

For more information, call Griffith at (307) 766-3069.

Photo: Saxophonist Jennifer Turpen is the concert’s featured soloist.

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