Area bands preparing for annual Tarleton Invitational Festival

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STEPHENVILLE (February 25, 2019) – Tarleton State University will host nine area junior high and high school bands March 5 and 6 at the ninth annual Invitational Band Festival.

The bands will visit the Tarleton campus in Stephenville for clinics with composer-in-residence Randall Standridge and open-to-the-public performances in the Clyde H. Wells Auditorium.

Guests include high school bands from Burkburnett, Brownwood, City View, Dublin, Eastland and Graham as well as the Stephenville High School Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band and Stephenville’s Henderson Junior High band.

The festival showcase concert will feature a joint performance by the Tarleton Symphonic Band and Tarleton Wind Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 5. Admission is $5 or free for festival participants and Tarleton ID holders.

Standridge is an Arkansas native with nearly 100 works in publication for band and orchestra. A multi-degreed graduate of Arkansas State University, he is consistently among the top ten most performed composers for Texas UIL band concert competitions. His compositions are performed regularly at the Midwest Clinic, the College Band Directors National Association conferences, and other major band conventions around the country. He taught 12 years in Arkansas public schools and is an accomplished arranger and drill writer for marching bands.

The Tarleton Symphonic Band is under the direction of Dr. Gary Westbrook. Its program will include Variations on a Korean Folk Song by John Barnes Chance and Claude T. Smith’s Declaration Overture, guest conducted by graduate assistant Chris Moix. Composer-in-residence Standridge will take the podium for his Imaginarium and Impact.

The Tarleton Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. David Robinson, will perform Vincent Persichetti’s Symphony No. 6 for Band; Kenneth Fuchs’ Rushfor saxophone and band, featuring assistant professor of saxophone Dr. Andrew Stonerock; “The Gum-suckers” Marchby Percy Grainger, with professor of piano Dr. Leslie Spotz; and Standridge’s The Nine, in commemoration of the Little Rock Nine, featuring associate professor of voice Dr. Iwao Asakura and the composer conducting.

For more information about the Tarleton Invitational Band Festival, contact Dr. Robinson, director of bands, at (254) 459-5326, or visit tarleton.edu/band.

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