Grace Wind Ensemble Presents A Lincoln Celebration
Posted
Staff Report-
WINONA LAKE - Join the Grace College Wind Ensemble April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Rodeheaver Auditorium as they join in the year-long bicentennial celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
The program features a combination of words, photos, video and music honoring the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth.
The centerpiece of the concert is Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait narrated by Larry Peppel.The Lincoln Portrait stole the show at the premiere in Cincinnati on May 16, 1942. The Lincoln Portrait became Copland's most popular and lucrative piece. Since the piece's first narration by radio actor Williams Adams, known especially for his FDR portrayal, political figures as far left and right as Senator Edward Kennedy and General Norman Schwarzkopf, actors as different as Katharine Hepburn and James Earl Jones, and such luminaries as Walter Cronkite and Coretta Scott King and even current President Barack Obama did the narration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Millennium Celebration held in Grant Park.
Music played a significant part during the life of Abraham Lincoln and the time before, during and after the Civil War. Lincoln's tastes in music were simple. He was partial to the kind of homespun melodies and military marches you will hear in the concert.
Lincoln himself was the subject of a great deal of music composed after his death, and the musical celebration features concert band works that carry his ideals into the modern concert hall - works by American composers Jerry Bilik, Jay Unger, Jay Dawson, Stephen Foster, Sammy Nestico and Aaron Copland will be performed. Conductor Martin Becker has adapted for the wind ensemble a Civil War March titled "Hail to the Flag of Freedom."
Featured soloist will be Grace College senior music major Arturo Osorio, performing "Gentle Annie," composed by Stephen Foster. Osorio, from Honduras, is a flautist that was featured last spring with the ensemble.
Another highlight will be the performance of the "American Civil War Fantasy" by Jerry Bilik. He composed the "American Civil War Fantasy" in 1961 for a half-time show presented by the University of Michigan Marching Band under the direction of William Revelli. The production concluded with the unrolling of an American flag that covered the entire football field.
While that field show has never been equaled, the music remains a classic of the symphonic band repertoire. The program notes provided with the music describe the significance of the tunes that depict the mood of our country before, during and after the War Between the States.
Becker has added a multi-media film that has many photographs from the National Archives of American History. The multi-media production was compiled by William Kovacs II, Dayton, Ohio.
The program will present a composition that features a musical reenactment of the Battle at Gettysburg.
"Gettysburg: The Third Day" is a tone poem in three continuous sections. While it describes actual chronological events, it seeks also to portray the human experience and tragedy of these events. This is portrayed as several young percussionists from Lakeview and Edgewood middle schools in the middle movement that depicts "battle scene." The piece ends as a solemn remembrance of the sacrifice and heroism exhibited there.
The 60-plus member Grace College Community Band is conducted by Becker. Becker retired in 2002 as director of bands for Warsaw Community Schools and now is in his seventh year as director of the Grace College Wind Ensemble. The musicians include Grace College Music majors, non-majors, community members, several high school students and professional musicians.
"A Lincoln Celebration" is free and open to the public.
