Brevard College Wind Ensemble holds its final concert April 12

PRESS RELEASE FROM BREVARD COLLEGE:

The Brevard College Wind Ensemble will present its last concert of the academic year on Tuesday, April 12, 7:30 p.m., at The Porter Center for Performing Arts. The concert is free and open to the public.

Special guests will be the BC Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. David Gresham and the Blue Ridge Symphonic Brass conducted by Jamie Hafner. The Blue Ridge Symphonic Brass is a brass ensemble comprised of 25 talented professional and semi-professional brass and percussion players from the Brevard, Hendersonville, Asheville and Greenville areas.

The ensemble’s instrumentation includes trumpets, French horns, euphoniums, trombones, tubas and percussion. Conductor Jamie Hafner is a well-known musical personality, having most recently served as Director of Bands at Brevard College. He is Director Emeritus of Bands at the University of Toledo and Director Emeritus of Education at the Brevard Music Center, and has also been an Honorary Fellow in Conducting at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan. Maestro Hafner is currently the conductor of the Brevard Community Band.

The Blue Ridge Symphonic Brass will start the program with a performance of Marcel Dupré’s “Poème Héroïque” for brass and organ Op. 33, which was dedicated to the cathedral of Verdun, France. Timothy Shepard, Director of Music at First United Methodist Church in Brevard, will be the featured organ soloist. The BC Wind Ensemble and Blue Ridge Symphonic Brass will combine to perform John Williams’ exciting “Sound the Bells,” written for one of the Boston Pops’ many tours to Japan.

The program continues with Percy Grainger’s “Ye Banks and Braes O’Bonnie Doon,” Aaron Copland’s “Old American Songs Set 2” featuring the BC Chamber Singers conducted by Gresham, and a beautiful contemporary setting of a medieval Gregorian chant entitled, “Then I Saw the Lucent Sky.”

The concert will conclude with the Blue Ridge Symphonic Brass joining the BC Wind Ensemble again for a performance of the “Infernal Dance and Finale” from Igor Stravinsky’s ballet, “The Firebird.”

“We are delighted to feature the wonderful BC Chamber Singers in a performance of selections from Aaron Copland’s Old American Songs Set 2,” said Eric Peterson, Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Bands at BC. “Dupré’s Poème Héroïque features heroic, martial, and elegiac themes, which exploit the power and subtlety of both brass ensemble and organ.”

Audience members are sure to enjoy the glorious sounds of BC’s own Kirkpatrick-Coleman organ combined with the artistry of the Blue Ridge Symphonic Brass, he added.