The SUNY Fredonia Wind Ensemble and the New Horizons Band of Western New York will perform together on stage.
This rarity will happen at a celebration of music and community at Harry A. King Concert Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 19. The performance is free and open to the public.
The Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Paula Holcomb, will open the concert with Britten's "Sunday Morning from the Four Sea Interludes" from the opera "Peter Grimes," by Benjamin Britten.
The outstanding arrangement is by a SUNY Fredonia School of Music alumnus, John Krestic, who retired as director of bands in the Silver Creek School District and is now a member of the New Horizons Band of Western New York.
"Come Sunday," by the innovative, award-winning composer Omar Thomas, is a two-movement work in tribute to the Hammond organ's central role in Black worship services. Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," a classic, will take the audience on a musical tour of an art gallery, complete with a promenade between works.
In celebration of 20 years of community music-making, the New Horizons Band of Western New York will perform as a guest of the Wind Ensemble. Co-founded and conducted by Fredonia Professor Emeritus Katherine McKay, the New Horizons Band is comprised of mature adults from Erie and Chautauqua counties who make music a passionate and lifelong endeavor.
The band will play Hugh M. Stuart's lilting "Three Ayres from Gloucester" in English folk song style.
In the grand finale, the two ensembles will take the stage together to perform "The Pines of the Appian Way," from “The Pines of Rome,” by Ottorino Respighi. Both groups look forward to working together to create a truly awesome performance of "The Pines of the Appian Way," which depicts the sound of a Roman army's footsteps from a misty dawn to a triumphant, resounding, victory march.
