ISU Wind Ensemble and Civic Concert Band Performance set for April 19
April 10, 2019
POCATELLO – The Idaho State University Civic Concert Band and Wind Ensemble will perform on April 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Jensen Grand Concert Hall in the L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center.
Erin Armstrong directs the Civic Concert Band, and Patrick Brooks, music professor, directs the Wind Ensemble. Both groups will feature music written by the immensely popular 21st-century American composer Eric Whitacre.
The Civic Concert Band will perform three pieces by American composers, opening with “Down to the Sea in Ships” by Robert Russell Bennett. This five-movement suite was originally the score for a 1952 NBC television documentary. Eric Whitacre’s “The Seal Lullaby” was going to be for an animated film based on Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Seal,” but the film never went into production. Whitacre then arranged his beautiful lullaby for choir, and he produced the band arrangement in 2011. The Civic Band’s final piece will be “Early Light” by Carolyn Bremer which uses fragments of the National Anthem to evoke the excitement of a baseball game.
The Wind Ensemble performance will feature an eclectic set of mostly 21st-century music, with several guest artist appearances.
Opening the program will be Robert Spittal’s “Consort for 10 Winds,” a tuneful, lighter work for pairs of flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons and French horns. Performing Consort will be a combined ensemble of the ISU faculty woodwind quintet “City Creek Winds” and the ISU student woodwind quintet. Next in the program will be a Pocatello premiere of Frederiech Gulda’s “Concerto for Cello and Wind Ensemble”, featuring ISU faculty cellist Eleanor Christman Cox. Composed in 1980 by the Austrian composer, this concerto is known for its lyrical melodies and the surprising range of musical influences.
Two contrasting works by Whitacre will be performed to close the concert. For Whitacre’s “Sleep,” based on the choral work by Whitacre on the poetry of Charles Anthony Silvestri, the Wind Ensemble will be joined by a group of dancers from ISU’s Dance Department.
Concluding the program will be Whitacre’s “Equus,” a rare minimalist tour-de-force from the composer. This 9-½ minute work literally “runs” (Equus - is the Latin word for horse) from beginning to end, and is a complex rhythmic workout for the ensemble.
Tickets are available at the Stephens Performing Arts Center Box Office.
Idaho State University, a Carnegie-classified doctoral high research activity university and teaching institution founded in 1901, attracts students from around the world to its Idaho campuses. At the main campus in Pocatello, and at locations in Meridian, Idaho Falls and Twin Falls, ISU has nine Colleges, a Graduate School and a Division of Health Sciences that together offer more than 250 certificate and degree programs. More than 12,000 students attend ISU. Idaho State University is the state's designated lead institution in health professions.
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