Symphony band performance held Dec. 2 at Appalachian

Posted Nov. 23, 2015 at 12:27 p.m.

BOONE—The Appalachian Symphony Band will present its last performance of the semester Dec. 2 at Appalachian State University.

The 8 p.m. concert in the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts on campus is free and open to the public. Kevin Gray Richardson is the conductor with graduate conductors Matthew Brusseau and Onsby C. Rose.

The band will premiere Ben Hjertmann’s composition “Kudzu Vine,” based on the fast-growing Japanese plant. The composition musically climbs and coils in terms of melody and harmonic development much like the plant’s growth. Hjertmann is an assistant professor of composition in the Hayes School of Music.

Brusseau will direct Gordon Jacob’s “Old Wine in New Bottles.” The light-hearted piece is based on four early English folk songs.

Also on the program is “The Library of Congress March,” written by John Philip Sousa and arranged by Stephen Bulla. The composition was begun by Sousa in 1931 but unfinished at the time of his death in 1932. Bulla, a U.S. Marine Band staff arranger, used a piano draft and one page of a completed band score to complete the work.

Rose will direct the North Carolina premiere of “Tidal Forces” by Michael Markowki. The composition is meant to be a celebration of life and the “invisible strings that bind us together,” according to the composer.

Other works on the program are “One Life Beautiful” by Julie Giroux, “Nosy Wheels of Joy” by Eric Whitacre and “Galop” by Arthur Bird.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, cost-effective education. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.