WINONA LAKE - This Friday at 7:30 p.m., the Grace College Community Band will present its spring concert.The concert will be at Rodeheaver Auditorium, Winona Lake. The concert features the largest band in recent years with 62 musicians. The program will feature several soloists throughout the concert. Martin Becker is the conductor and has been director of the Grace College Community Wind Ensemble for the past six years.
The program will begin with a new work for concert band titled "Haleakala (House of the Sun)" by Carl Strommen. The music was named after the volcano on Maui in Hawaii. Dvorak's "Symphony No. 9," subtitled "From the New World," will be the feature selection of the evening. The finale provides a summation of the entire composition, for in addition to its own ideas, it also recalls themes from preceding movements. The work has been transcribed for band by Mark Hindsley.
Corbin Stair will be the first soloist, performing "Gabriel's Oboe." Stair is a freshmen at Warsaw Community High School and is in his second year as a member of the Grace Wind Ensemble.
To close out the first half of the program, Becker has chosen a native of Indiana, Fred Jewell who was born in Worthington 1875. He was nationally recognized as Indiana's March King. Many of his marches are still performed.
The second half of the program will feature principal flutist Arturo Osorio. Born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Osorio received a degree in music from the National Conservatory of Honduras in 1997. Osorio is currently a transfer student at Grace College, where he is pursuing a bachelor's degree in music with a minor in business administration.
"Go Tell It on the Mountain" is an African-American spiritual dating back to at least 1865 that has been sung and recorded by many gospel and secular performers. The Grace Trombone Ensemble is featured in stylistic treatments of the Gospel tune, that include bossa nova, polka, march, gospel and even a taste of swing. Faculty members Dr. James Kraft, Dr. Tim Sanborn and Grace students Debbie Burkett and Jeremy Smith are featured in this special Les Taylor arrangement.
Henry Fillmore's Lassus Trombone will bring the concert to a conclusion.
The concert is free and there are no reserved seats. Doors open at 7 p.m. Concert begins at 7:30 p.m.
