School of Music presents a Wind Festival Weekend including more than 80 high school students, Feb. 11-12
Nazareth College School of Music welcomes more than 80 high school musicians from 25 different schools in Western New York to Nazareth for a special wind festival weekend featuring the Nazareth Wind Symphony, the Eastman Community Music School (ECMS) Music Educators Wind Ensemble (MEWE), and the 2022 High School Honor Band.
The first concert will take place on Friday, February 11, at 7:30 p.m. at the Nazareth College Glazer Music Performance Center’s Beston Hall — featuring Nazareth’s Wind Symphony and the Eastman Community Music School (ECMS) Music Educators Wind Ensemble (MEWE).
The 2022 High School Honor Band Festival concert is Saturday, February 12, at 3 p.m. at Beston Hall.
Both concerts will be livestreamed.
Wind Symphony conductor Jared Chase says the School of Music is looking forward to providing an intergenerational experience for talented high school students, Nazareth music students, and music educators to all perform together in Beston Hall.
“With so many honor bands canceled in 2020-2021, we organized our own honor band festival with MEWE,” said Chase. "We had a great response with close to 100 applicants! The honor band students get to work with our excellent Naz music faculty in masterclasses, experience being college students for the weekend, and perform some fun and exciting music on Saturday afternoon.”
The high school honor band students will attend the Friday, February 11 concert featuring the Nazareth Wind Symphony and the ECMS Music Educators Wind Ensemble. This concert will feature the program the Wind Symphony is taking on tour to Baltimore to perform at the College Band Directors National Association Conference on February 19th.
The Music Educators Wind Ensemble is conducted by Bill Tiberio and consists of 60 local music educators. These educators from around the surrounding area have also been hard at work preparing some of their own school musicians chosen for Honors Band. The high school musicians will take the Beston stage on Saturday, February 12, at 3 p.m., to perform for their family and friends.
“This represents an opportunity to experience excellent wind literature played by committed musicians of all ages – high school through adulthood and even including some retired music educators,” said Tiberio. “The Nazareth wind program has soared in recent years with Jared at the helm and connections to the educators in the MEWE run deep. Many of us will have students listening, rehearsing, and performing this weekend as well. It's truly a ‘full circle’ event.”
PROGRAM
Friday, February 11, at 7:30 p.m. concert
The concert on Friday night will feature the MEWE and the award-winning Nazareth Wind Symphony who will be premiering two works; Heritage by Shawn Okpebepelo and Tarot by Nazareth alum Lindsay Bronnenkant. Other works will be the classic Hammersmith by Holst and a new work by David Beidenbender called Unquiet Hours.
The second half of the concert features the MEWE and conductor Bill Tiberio in Eternal Father Strong to Save by Claude Smith, Century Vanants by David Gillingham, The Cruel Moon by John Mackey, and Firing on All Cylinders by Matt Conaway. Lindsay Bronnenkant, doctoral candidate Eastman School of Music, and adjunct faculty at Nazareth College will guest conduct Symphony for Band by Vincent Persichetti.
Saturday, February 12, at 3 p.m. Honor Band concert
This concert will feature the 80-piece honor band, conducted by Nazareth’s Jared Chase, performing American's We by Henry Fillmore, Magnolia Star by Rochester-based composer Steve Danyew, Sheltering Sky by John Mackey, and closing with Ghost Apparatus by David Biedenbender.
Nazareth ID or documentation of vaccination/testing is required. All teachers, faculty, and students performing in the concert are required to be fully vaccinated and will be performing with bell covers and masks. Audience members will need to follow Nazareth College visitor guidelines to attend the concert. Effective January 15, 2022, visitors ages 5 and older are required to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination (paper or digital), or proof of a negative test within the previous 48 hours, along with photo ID, for all group events open to the public.
For More Information
Julie Long | Chief PR Officer | jlong2@naz.edu | (585) 389-2456 | (585) 781-8186 (cell)
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