UMaine Symphonic Band to tour Aroostook
ORONO — The 50-member University of Maine Symphonic Band will tour Down East and northern Maine April 3–6 with free public performances from Machias to Madawaska at school assemblies during the day and evening community concerts.
The 7 p.m. concerts are April 3 with the Machias Town Band at the University of Maine at Machias, April 4 at Houlton High School and April 5 at Madawaska High School. There also will be a 1 p.m. concert April 5 with the University of Maine Presque Isle Community Band on campus in Presque Isle.
“It’s a wonderful experience being able to bring music to the communities in Maine,” said UMaine Conductor Christopher White. “Each performance on tour gives us a chance to show people what is happening at the University of Maine in the music division. The members of the ensemble look forward each year to sharing their talents with schools and communities.”
The Symphonic Band is an auditioned group of UMaine faculty and students who are the best wind and percussion musicians at the University of Maine.
The program they will present includes works by Clifton Williams, R. Vaughan Williams, Dana Wilson, Johan Halvorsen, Frank Ticheli and R.B. Hall.
Among the performance highlights: soloist Blake Ford, a senior music education major from Princeton, will play electric guitar in a unique piece, “Chaos Theory 3.0 Concerto for Electric Guitar and Wind Orchestra” by composer, sound designer and guitarist Jim Bonney. The “Chaos” piece was commissioned by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Wind Orchestra and premiered May 30, 2000.
Jason Priest of Old Town, winner of the Symphonic Band solo competition in December and a UMaine senior majoring in music performance and music education, will solo on the euphonium in a piece, “Rhapsody for Euphonium and Concert Band” by James Curnow.
Faculty member Dan Barrett will perform a featured trombone solo in “Variations on Barnacle Bill The Sailor” by Steven Frank, who teaches low brass at UMaine.
The Symphonic Band’s spring concert, featuring selections from the tour, will be April 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Collins Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12; free with a student MaineCard, and can be purchased at the Collins Center for the Arts box office or at the door prior to the performance. For more information or to request disability accommodations, call the Collins Center for the Arts, at 581-1755.
