Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
BOLIVAR, Mo. – The Southwest Baptist University Wind Symphony will present a free concert on Thursday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Bolivar High School auditorium. Brian K. Hopwood, conductor of SBU Wind Symphony and the Bolivar High School Band, Steve McClard and John Trew, conductors, will be sharing the stage.
The Bolivar High School Band will perform a variety of music including the concert overture Celebration and Song by American composer Robert Sheldon, and A Walk in the Morning Sun, a tribute to the music of Leroy Anderson, by Pierre La Plante. Their performance also includes an arrangement of Steven Reineke’s The Witch and the Saint, a programmatic tone poem depicting the life of twin sisters born in 1588 in Ellwangen, Germany. Algorhythms by Gary Fagan reflects the intentional misspelling of the mathematical term with its repetitive rhythmic feel and almost “digital” quality.
The Wind Symphony performance opens with three commissioned works for band. John Zdechlik’s Chorale and Shaker Dance, based on the well-known Shaker tune, “Simple Gifts” was written in 1971. Colorado Peaks, written in 2005, does not adhere to a set formal structure, just as the peaks of the Rocky Mountains are bound by no set pattern. The work is essentially based on two ideas: a crisp quarter-note pulse representative of hiking and broad reach of the distant mountains first presented in the horns.
Samuel Hazo’s Perthshire Majesty, written in 2003, is a single movement composition and winner of the William Revelli Composition Contest sponsored by the National Band Association. The work was commissioned by the Tara Winds, a community band of Atlanta, Ga. with David Gregory as the conductor. The well-known Sousa march Semper Fidelis and the wind band classic, Variations on a Korean Folk Song by John Barnes Chance round out the Wind Symphony’s performance.
An arrangement of the hymn God of Our Fathers by Missouri composer, the late Claude T. Smith, will be performed jointly by both ensembles and will conclude the concert, which is free and open to the public.
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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.
SBU’s Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 399-7918.
