BOLIVAR, MO – The Southwest Baptist University Symphonic Winds, under the direction of Brian K. Hopwood, will present a free concert at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11 in Pike Auditorium on the Bolivar campus. Guest ensemble will be the Stockton High School Band with Marvin Manring directing.
The Symphonic Winds performance will include the classic transcription for wind band, Variations on “America” by Charles Ives along with another staple of the band’s literature, Alfred Reed’s The Hounds of Spring. An arrangement of Puccini’s Nessun Dorma from the opera “Turandot” will be performed as a tribute to the late Luciano Pavarotti. Also included on the performance are two commissioned works: For the New Day Arisen, a fanfare by Steven Barton written for the dedication of the new George Washington Carver School (Chesterfield County, Va.) and The Echo Never Fades, commissioned by the St. Charles (Illinois) East High School Wind Ensemble as a poignant memorial to band student Tyler Caruso whose heart stopped unexpectedly during an outing at Lake Michigan. Featured soloists on this work are Brian J. Hopwood, alto saxophone, and Sara Miller, piano.
The Stockton High School Band will perform a variety of music including Flying Eagle March by German composer H. L. Blankenburg and John Williams in Concert, an arrangement of themes from well-known movie scores (i.e., Star Wars, Superman, etc.) by Paul Lavender. Their performance will also include Into the Storm, a work by Robert W. Smith that was written to commemorate the powerful 1993 winter storm that brutalized the eastern United States. John Phillip Sousa’s U.S. Field Artillery March will be performed jointly by both bands and will conclude the concert.
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