UPEI Wind Symphony gives final performance of the year on March 25
The University of Prince Edward Island's Department of Music will present its Wind Symphony in its final recital of the academic year this Thursday, March 25, at 7:30 p.m., at the Dr. Steel Recital Hall.
The center-piece of the program will be a performance of Roger Cichy's Bugs. A six-movement work, Bugs attempts to describe in musical terms the characters of a variety of insects. The Praying Mantis, as its name infers, has a slow religious movement. The Butterfly is depicted with its grace and beauty, while Ants are described in a dissonant March portrayed as savage predators, constantly on the move.
Opening the program is Cathedrals by the young American composer Kathryn Salfelder. Cathedrals is an adventure in neo-Renaissance Music, based on Gabrieli's Canzon Primi Toni, a work scored for two brass choirs and typically stationed in opposite balconies of the church. The work is a synthesis of the old and the new, evoking the mystery and allure of Gabrieli's spatial music, intertwined with a rich color palette, modal harmonies, and textures of woodwinds and percussion.
Concluding the program is Scootin' On Hardrock. Subtitled Three Short Scat-Jazzy Dances, this work is an adventure merging the rock and jazz idioms in a virtuosic display for the modern wind band. Rapid woodwind passage work, brass riffs, and percussion punctuation all combine for a wild ride in this genre.
Under the direction of Dr. Karem J. Simon, the Wind Symphony has been acclaimed for its performance standard and programming. The 53 members of this year's ensemble consist of 24 music majors, other UPEI students, high school students, and community musicians.
Performing for their final recital as students with the Wind Symphony are graduating seniors Philip Kromer and Sara Arsenault. Philip, from Montague, PEI, is principal percussionist and has had a highly active undergraduate career contributing not only to the Wind Symphony but to the Jazz Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, and a variety of vocal groups. His recent solo senior recital was a musical success.
Sara, from Charlottetown, is principal clarinetist and has had an eight-year career with the Wind Symphony extending for three years prior to her five-year Bachelor of Music Education Degree Program. She has been a frequent performer on the university's recital series, has been soloist with the Wind Symphony, and will perform her solo senior recital next week.
Both Philip and Sara are part of the rich Wind Symphony history for which their leadership and musical contributions have had a far reaching impact.
For information, contact the UPEI Music Department at (902) 566-0507.
