'Global Flight:' Utah State University Bands Combine In Winter Concert

The Utah State University Wind Orchestra and Symphonic Band combine for an annual winter concert Friday, Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kent Concert Hall of the Chase Fine Arts Center at USU (approximately 1110 E. 610 North, Logan).

The concert features an eclectic selection of wind works, capped by a massed band finale of the combined ensembles (including 120 players) for the awarding-winning British work Cartoon by Paul Hart, an overture based on the cartoon music of the 1940s and ‘50s.

 

Concert admission is $5, with a family rate of $10. Tickets are available at the door.

 

The concert title comes from the diverse global flavor of the repertoire coupled with the world premiere of Global Flyer by USU award-winning composer Thomas P. Rohrer, director of bands in the Department of Music in the Caine School of the Arts. Rohrer also directs the USU Wind Orchestra. The work was written in reflection and with respect for the centennial celebration of the “Great [automobile] Race” of 1908, in which the Thomas Flyer — the entry from the United States — won the one-and-only such event ever held. Musically, the piece represents the perpetual synchronized movement of machinery within a personally-expressive body in the automobile, one of man’s most splendid modern juxtapositions of engineering and art, the composer said.

 

The concert also includes the epic Symphony in B flat by German composer Paul Hindemith. Written in 1951, the work is considered among the most substantial and respected works for the wind ensemble.

 

The Wind Orchestra will also perform music of prolific Utah composer Christian Earl, whose Fantasia on ‘All Creatures of Our God and King’ was premiered by the Salt Lake Symphonic Winds in May 2008.

 

The concert also includes the Symphonic Band and Wind Orchestra performing separately, under the conductorship of Nicholas Morrison and Rohrer, respectively. The Symphonic Band program includes Imperatrix by Alfred Reed, Hebrides Suite by Clare Grundman and Cajun Folksongs by Frank Ticheli. In addition to the Hindemith symphony and Earl fantasia, the Wind Orchestra will perform Spiritual by H. Owen Reed and Miniature Set for Band by Donald White.

 

 

Source: USU Bands
Contact: Thomas P. Rohrer, director of bands, (435) 797-3004