UW-Whitewater’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Concert Band to perform
UW-Whitewater’s Music Department, Glenn Hayes, John Tuinstra, members of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Concert Band would like to cordially invite the public to both ensembles’ final program of the semester – May 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Young Auditorium on the UW-Whitewater campus. The concert of music by American composers is a musical tribute to our nation’s veterans.
The Concert Band will perform four works including two that honor World War II veterans. “Where Never Lark or Eagle Flew” was inspired by the poem “High Flight” which was written by John Gillespie Magee Jr., a 19 year old volunteer in the Royal Canadian Air Force who was killed during a training mission in 1941.
In addition, the ensemble would like to recognize the 70th anniversary of the D Day invasion with a work by Darius Milhaud entitled “Suite Francaise.” Each movement of this five-movement work is named after a different French province and would have been the same provinces where American and Allied forces would have fought along with the French underground in the liberation of France.
The ensemble will round out their portion of the concert with a beautiful setting of the American folksong “Shenandoah” and “American Dream” by James Beckel.
The Symphonic Wind Ensemble will perform several works including Samuel Barber’s “Commando March,” David Gillingham’s “Heroes – Lost and Fallen” and “Three Dance Episodes” from “On The Town” by Leonard Bernstein. “Commando March” was written in 1943 and was Barber’s first work for band. Barber wrote his “Commando March” shortly after being enlisted in the United States Army during the Second World War. The work was completed in February 1943 and was premiered on May 23 of that year by the Army Air Force Tactical Training Command Band in Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The ensemble will perform a newer work by David Gillingham entitled “Heroes – Lost and Fallen.” In this highly evocative work Gillingham incorporates the Vietnamese and American national anthems and was written to honor fellow Vietnam War Veterans. David Gillingham served in Vietnam.
The “Three Dance Episodes” from “On The Town” presents a musical portrait of three sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City, seeing the sights and three women whom they meet and (of course) fall in love with along the way.
All Veterans and the general public are invited to this free event. There will also be a viewing of a mini-documentary of Fairhaven residents who are WWII veterans created by Katie Klepper and Carrie Larson as part of a service-learning project and for the National History Project through the Smithsonian museum.
