Date:
4/28/2009
Contact: Wendel Sloan at 575.562.2253
PORTALES—Eastern New Mexico University music students will perform a wind symphony and symphonic band concert on Sunday May 3, at 3 p.m. in the Campus Union Building Ballroom on the Portales campus. It is free and open to the public.
This concert is conducted by ENMU music professors Dustin Seifert and Neil Rutland. Some of the pieces selected are “Suite Francaise” by Milhaud and conducted by Rutland, “Concert Etude” by Goedicke featuring ENMU professor Michael Ellzey on trumpet with the wind symphony accompanying. Other “show-stopping pieces,” according to Seifert, are “American Elegy” by Ticheli and “Lincoln Portrait” by Aaron Copland, which will be narrated by Duane Ryan, director of broadcasting at KENW.
“Lincoln Portrait” will be performed to celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. The work was performed prior to the inauguration of Barack Obama with actor Tom Hanks narrating. Seifert believes this piece will make those in attendance feel “proud and patriotic.” “American Elegy” was written after the Columbine shootings in Littleton, Colo., to honor those who died and those who survived the tragic shootings. “This piece is very moving, beautiful and lush and includes a statement of the Columbine High School alma mater,” explains Mr. Seifert.
The symphonic band students have been rehearsing these pieces since March, whereas the wind symphony’s recent trip to Ireland to perform in the St. Patrick’s Day parade delayed their rehearsal. Seifert is excited to see his students perform the musical selections. “This concert is a musical exclamation point AT the end of the year,” he says.
For more information, call Kathi Fraze at 575.562.2377.