The new Shepherd University Symphony Band, along with the Shepherd Wind Ensemble, will perform their first concert featuring international wind band music on Friday, April 6 at 8 p.m. in the Frank Center. A pre-concert lecture describing the works is free with admission beginning at 7 p.m. The audience is also invited to spend an hour with conductor Dr. Scott Hippensteel and the ensemble following the performance.

The Symphony Band is open to Shepherd music majors, non-music majors, faculty, staff and community members. Selections to be performed by the Symphony Band will include Amparito Roca, a Spanish march; Chester, an overture based on the American Revolutionary War song by William Billings; Country Gardens by Percy Grainger; Courtly Airs and Dances, a six movement suite of international Renaissance dances by Ron Nelson; a setting of Amazing Grace by Frank Ticheli; and a syncopated, bouncy southern fugue by Brant Karrick titled Bayou Breakdown.

The second half of the program will feature the Wind Ensemble with the Festive Overture by Dimitri Shostakovich; Toccata Marziale by Ralph Vaughan Williams; Vientos y Tangos, a new work by Michael Gandolfi in the style of Astor Piazolla using a creative variety of timbres and Argentinian dance rhythms; Florentiner March by Czech composer Julius Fucik in an grand Italian march style; October by Eric Whitacre; and Frenzy, a work of fast-paced intensity by Andrew Boysen.

The Wind Ensemble is comprised of Shepherd music majors and a few select non-majors. The ensemble has been invited to perform around the world. In 2001, the group accepted an invitation from the Lord Mayor of Dublin to tour Ireland. In 2004, its recording of Barnes’s Symphony #3 garnered the ensemble an invitation to be a part of the 2005 season in Carnegie Hall. And in 2009, the Wind Ensemble attended a 10-day concert tour of Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague.

Admission and seating for the Symphony Band and Wind Ensemble concert is on a first-come, first-serve basis. The box office will open one hour prior to each performance. General admission is $10, $5 for students 18 and under, and free to Shepherd students and Friends of Music MAC Cardholders.

For more information, call 304-876-5555 or visit www.shepherd.edu/musicweb.