(Posted November 19, 2019)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – The Juniata College Wind Symphony will present their fall concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts. 

The ensemble has been practicing pieces throughout the semester and the musicians are excited to share these pieces with the community. 

The group will start off their concert with “Totem Pole,” arranged by Eric Osterling. This piece starts off with strong brass voices going on to mellow mid-woodwind voices and including some highlights from the low brass section of the band. “Totem Pole” will be followed by “Dusk” by Steven Bryant. This simple, chorale-like work captures the reflective calm of dusk, paradoxically illuminated by the fiery hues of sunset. 

After reminding the audience of the beauty of dusk, the wind symphony will play “Into the Silent Land” by Steve Danyew. This work reflects on the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, written by a composer who attended that school years prior to the tragedy. The piece concludes with a moving poem read by guest narrator, Cy Merriwether-DeVries, associate professor of sociology. 

The final piece will be “Children’s March,” composed by Percy Grainger and arranged by Mark Rogers. This piece is a livelier piece and is sure to pull the audience into a brighter mindset.

After playing these four pieces alone, the Juniata College/Community Concert Band will join the wind symphony on stage to play two pieces. The first, “Festivo” by Vaclav Nelhybel is “an overture-type composition in which the woodwinds and brasses are constantly confronting each other like two antagonists in a dramatic scene.” 

To conclude the concert, the combined bands will play a compilation of songs from the popular musical, “The Phantom of the Opera” by Andrew Lloyd Webber, arranged by Warren Barker.

This concert is free and open to the public. 

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.