UMHB Wind Ensemble to perform

Wednesday, 29 February 2012 by Keith Bahlmann

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Department of Music is proud to present the UMHB Wind Ensemble in Concert on Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m. in W.W. Walton Chapel on the UMHB campus. This performance will feature works by Percy Grainger, Eric Whitacre, Shelly Hanson, William Schuman, and David Maslanka.

Opening the concert, the Wind Ensemble will present Grainger's rollicking setting of an English Morris Dance, "Shepherd's Hey." Composed in 1918, this folk music setting is believed to be one of the first works for military bands to include piano in its orchestration.

Whitacre's "The Seal Lullaby" is an enchanting lullaby that was originally conceived as part of a soundtrack for an animated motion picture based on Rudyard Kipling's The White Seal. Unfortunately, this stirring melody never made it to the silver screen as DreamWorks decided "to make Kung Fu Panda instead."

Shelly Hanson's "Dances with Winds" is a three movement work for a chamber ensemble of thirteen winds and two percussionists. Each movement highlights folk tunes from three very different European regions: Macedonia, Ireland, and Serbia. This 18-minute work for winds is part of the Cochran Chamber Commissioning Project.

William Schuman, a native New Yorker, originally wrote "Chester" as the third movement of the New England Triptych. He developed and extended the orchestral version, making "Chester" into an overture for band.

The performance will conclude with David Maslanka's "Give Us This Day: Short Symphony for Wind Ensemble." This two movement work, whose title is taken from the Lord's Prayer, finds its inspiration from a Buddhist philosophy.

This performance is free and open to the public.

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