Musical Postcards From The Cascade Winds

Posted on 02/23/07

The second concert of the Cascade Winds Symphonic Band season, under the direction of Michael Gesme, will be Sunday, March 11, 2:00 p.m. and Monday, March 12, 7:30 p.m. at the Tower Theatre. The Sunday performance will begin at 2:00 p.m. and the Monday performance will commence at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are free, but required for admission, and are available at the Tower Theatre box office (317-0700), or from any band member. Please call Yoleen at 389-2035 for tickets and information about the Season Subscription Drive. The concerts are free of charge, although donations will gratefully be accepted.

The theme for the concert is musical postcards from around the world and each work has a distinct regional flavor. The concert will open with a work titled Slavia (A Slavonic Rhapsody) by Jan Van der Roost, which captures the essence of Slavic folk song, dance and melody in a colorful work for concert band. Also on the first half of the program: Pulitzer prize winning Morton Gould's St. Lawrence Suite, written for the dedication of a hydroelectric plant in 1958 and Danza Sinfonica by James Barnes. The former is a slice of American ingenuity from one of the most eclectic of American composers and the latter is a splash of Spanish color from one of the highly regarded wind ensemble composers of our own time.

A transcription of Jean Sibelius's late nineteenth-century masterwork Finlandia will open the second half. This work was initially created as a part of a protest against censorship in the press and quickly attained the status of an unofficial national anthem. The chorale in the middle
of the composition is a staple in protestant hymnals still today. The concert will conclude with La Fiesta Mexicana by H. Owen Reed. Depicting the events surrounding a Mexican Fiesta, this work, written in 1949, is based on experiences that Reed gained during a five-month sojourn in Mexico on a Guggenheim Fellowship. The three movements, Prelude and Aztec Dance, Mass, and Carnival, are filled with authentic folk tunes Reed found in Chapala, Jalisco, and Guadalajara; other themes were borrowed from Gregorian motifs and Aztec dances.

This concert is being presented in conjunction with NeighborImpact and all those who attend are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item to donate to this great organization. Be a good neighbor to your neighbors