Dr. Grier Williams School of Music presents UWF Symphonic Band in concert
The University of West Florida Dr. Grier Williams School of Music will present the Symphonic Band in concert on Tuesday, February 28 at 7:30 p.m. The concert will be held in the Mainstage Theatre at the Center for Fine and Performing Arts, Building 82, on the Pensacola campus.
Under the direction of Dr. Jeff Osarczuk, this program will include works by Joseph Willcox Jenkins, David Maslanka, John Mackey, Chen Yi and Gustav Holst.
Featured pieces on the program will be “First Suite in Eb” by Gustav Holst (ed. Colin Matthews). This piece is considered one of the masterworks and cornerstones of band literature. Although completed in 1909, the suite didn’t receive its official premiere until 11 years later on June 23, 1920, by an ensemble of 165 musicians at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall. However, the work was originally conceived to be performed by ensembles significantly smaller than the one at Kneller Hall. During this period, there was no standardized instrumentation among the hundreds of British military bands of the day, and as a result, no significant literature had been previously written for the band medium; most British bands up to then performed arrangements of popular orchestral pieces. To ensure the suite would be accessible to as many bands as possible, Holst ingeniously scored the work so that it could be played by a minimum of 19 musicians, with 16 additional parts that could be added or removed without compromising the integrity of the work.
The Symphonic Band is committed to performing the finest wind band repertoire and is open to all UWF students with prior experience on an instrument. Students in the Symphonic Band are enrolled in numerous majors and minors across the UWF campus.
This event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. For tickets or more information, visit uwf.edu/cfpa or call the CFPA box office at 850.857.6285.
