271 SYMPHONIC BAND & BRASS CHAMBER ENSEMBLE PERFORM FEB. 21 AT MTSU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 8, 2008
CONTACT: Tim Musselman, (615) 898-2493

SYMPHONIC BAND & BRASS CHAMBER ENSEMBLE PERFORM FEB. 21 AT MTSU
Free Performance Features Symphonic Band’s ‘South of the Border’ Flare, Cornish Says

(MURFREESBORO)—The MTSU Symphonic Band and MTSU Brass Chamber Ensemble will present a free and open concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb.21, in the T. Earl Hinton Hall of the Wright Music Building on the MTSU campus.
“For the Symphonic Band portion of the program, we're taking a trip south of the border,” said Craig Cornish, conductor of the group and associate director of bands at MTSU.
The Symphonic Band will start with Jaime Texidor's Amparito Roca, a grand march written in a Spanish style. They band will also perform H. O. Reed's La Fiesta Mexicana.
"La Fiesta Mexicana has long been considered an important part of the modern concert band repertoire," Cornish said. "Programmatic in nature, (it) attempts to portray musically a Day of Fiesta in the life of a Mexican peasant," he explained.
“The concert will conclude with the fiery Fandango, an exciting romp full of Latin rhythms and melodies,” he added. “Bring your sombrero!”
The Brass Chamber Ensemble will open its portion of the concert with three pieces for brass choir and percussion, including Fisher Tull’s Brevard Fanfare, written for the 50th anniversary of the Brevard Music Center Festival in North Carolina, as well as Samuel Barber's Mutations from Bach, a short sequence of transformations of the plain song titled Christe, du Lamm Gottes (translated as Christ, Thou Lamb of God).
"The song is heard six times, with each reiteration being based on one of Bach's own voicings," said Reed Thomas, conductor of the group and director of bands at MTSU.
The group will also perform a work by Eric Ewazen, who “wrote a monumental tour de force with his Symphony for Brass and Percussion,” said Thomas, who added the piece is “a very challenging and rewarding work for brass (that) is soon to become a standard piece in the repertoire.”
For more information on this and other events in the MTSU School of Music, please visit www.mtsumusic.com or call 615-898-2493.



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