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Tarleton State University
STEPHENVILLE (September 24, 2015) — The Tarleton State University Wind Ensemble kicks off the 2015-2016 academic year with its first concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4, in the Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center Auditorium. General admission is free to all; however, cash donations will be accepted at the door to benefit the Erath County United Way.
The concert opens with the Texas premier of Michael Kurek’s, Monument. This work received world premier at the 2015 College Band Directors National Association conference in Nashville, Tenn. The work is a tone poem that depicts a firm and stable structure on which many other buildings are erected. The work was commissioned by the Vanderbilt University Wind Symphony and is dedicated to Dr. Dwayne Sagen, recently retired director of bands and associate dean at Vanderbilt.
Following Monument, the Tarleton Wind Ensemble predicts the season change to fall as it presents Eric Whitacre’s October and then leads the audience into dance with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol.
After a brief intermission, the Wind Ensemble presents one of its biggest challenges to date with the 1919 version of the suite to Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird. The ballet is based on the Russian legend of a powerful good spirit whose feathers supposedly convey beauty and protection upon the earth.
Other characters from Russian lore also are included: the heroic Prince Ivan Tsarevich and the evil sorcerer Kashchei, from whom Ivan must rescue the princess he loves. It is only through the intervention of the Firebird, whose life he spares early in the ballet, that Ivan is able to destroy Kashchei and his followers and marry the princess. The folk origins of the story inspired Stravinsky to borrow a few folk melodies in his score. Yet most of the ballet, especially the fluttering dance of the Firebird and the memorable wedding march at the ballet’s conclusion, was his own creation.
A pre-concert reception sponsored by Tau Beta Sigma takes place at 2:30 p.m. in the auditorium’s foyer. Donations for the Erath County United Way can be made via check, made payable to SECC, or cash.
For a complete scheduled of upcoming events presented by Tarleton’s Department of Fine Arts, visit www.tarleton.edu/finearts.
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