VSU Concert Band, Wind Ensemble Perform March 8

Skye Holmes Benjamin Harper

VALDOSTA — The Valdosta State University Concert Band and Wind Ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 8, in Whitehead Auditorium. Admission is free of charge and open to the public.

The 49-member Concert Band, conducted by Dr. Skye Holmes, will perform Jack Stamp’s exuberant and refreshing Cenotaph (Fanfare for Band); Frank Ticheli’s simple, straightforward A Shaker Gift Song; Malcolm Arnold’s breezy, folk-like Prelude, Siciliano, and Rondo; and Orange Blossom (Fire on a Mountain), a traditional folk song of the Netherlands arranged for band by Greg Buitenhuis.

Following a brief intermission, the 34-member Wind Ensemble, conducted by Dr. Benjamin Harper, will perform David Maslanka’s sternly reflective Liberation and Eric Richards’s Concerto for Trombone Quartet and Wind Ensemble, a three-movement escapade featuring Department of Music faculty Doug Farwell and students Oscar de la Rosa, Franklin Carmona, and Paul Henry on trombone.

Holmes is assistant director of bands and director of athletic bands at VSU. She directs the Blazin’ Brigade Marching Band and Concert Band and teaches courses in arranging and marching band techniques.

Harper is director of bands and assistant professor of music at VSU. He conducts the Wind Ensemble, directs the graduate program in wind conducting, and guides all aspects of the university band program.

VSU’s Whitehead Auditorium is located on the first floor of the Fine Arts Building, at the intersection of Brookwood Drive and Patterson Street.