Contributed by Drewcilla Holifield
Women of Note Concert
5/19/2018 – 7:30PM
Mat-Su Concert Band
The Glenn Massay Theater
8295 E College Dr. Palmer
Tickets: $15 General, $7 Students, FREE (Ages 0-5)
The Mat-Su Concert Band will play a concert of music written entirely by women for the group’s season finale in May.
The Women of Note Concert starts at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 19th at The Glenn Massay Theater at Mat-Su College.
The concerts have an intermission. Tickets are $15, $7 for students and children under 5 get in free. Tickets can be purchased online at www.matsuconcertband.org.
Listen for musical references to “The Star-Spangled Banner” in the Carolyn Bremer composition “Early Light”, a wind ensemble mainstay that embodies Bremer’s love of baseball.
Prolific American composer, Julie Giroux, wrote “Circus Franticus” as a rousing virtual tour of a circus scene commissioned by the U.S. Air Force Band of Liberty. Standing in somber contrast, “One Life Beautiful” was written for Heather Cramer Reu, daughter of the band department chair for the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana. She was killed by a car while riding her bike near Albuquerque in 2009.
The band will also play two pieces by Anne McGinty, also an American. “’Tis a Gift”, based on the familiar Shaker song “Simple Gifts”, was written in memory of three Pennsylvania band students who died in the 1996 TWA plane crash over the Atlantic Ocean near New York. “Variations and Theme”, with solo flutist, Char Sterling, combines lyrical melodic lines with lively faster passages.
Chinese-born composer, Chen Yi, wrote “Spring Festival” as a celebration of the Chinese New Year, with melody drawn from a southern Chinese folk ensemble piece called “Lion Playing Ball”.
“Winter Milky Way” by Japanese composer, Yukiko Nishimura, is a lush ballad that takes listeners on a musically interstellar journey sprinkled with whimsy and jazz-influenced harmonies.
Other pieces include “Tirana” by Carol Barnett, a series of lively dances interrupted by fanfares with a Southeast European flavor and “Cathedrals”, a fantasy on an Italian canzon for brass choirs that dates from 1597 by Kathryn Salfelder.
About The Mat-Su Community Band:
The band got its start in 1984 as the Mat-Su Community Band, formed by Matanuska Music owner, Hank Hartman. Other directors have included Neil Long and Phil Munger.
Current director Gleo Huyck is a retired music educator and private instructor. Under Huyck’s baton, the band performs a wide-ranging selection of challenging music. The band this season numbers about 70 amateur musicians who assemble every Monday night for rehearsals at Teeland Middle School. amateur musicians who assemble every Monday night for rehearsals at Teeland Middle School.
