The UTC Music Department will present the UTC Band in concert on Thursday, Feb. 19, at 3 p.m. in the Roland Hayes Concert Hall, UTC Fine Arts Center (corner of Vine and Palmetto Streets). The program is entitled “Great Band Classics.”
Dr. Stuart Benkert described the concert as “…a good one for those that love band music.” The concert is free and open to the general public.
When describing the programming for this concert Dr. Benkert stated too many students lack experience playing the “standards” of real band literature and part of the educational process of teaching band directors is introducing them to standard literature. “It would be similar to having a student graduate with a degree in English literature without having read Gulliver’s Travels, The Canterbury Tales, or Wuthering Heights. I am dedicated to making sure that each UTC graduate has played a certain amount of standard literature, original masterworks, and pieces of historical significance.” The selections for this concert include Giovanni’s “Overture in B-flat,” Persichetti’s “Pageant”, Holst’s “First Suite” and Giannini’s “Fantasia for Band. A particular treat is the alto sax solo with band arrangement of “Harlem Nocturne” by Alfred Reed.
In addition to the full band pieces, the Brass Choir will perform Dr. Kenyon Wilson’s work “Kerfuffle” for quintuple antiphonal quartets – that is five groups of four instruments who will be dispersed through different parts of the hall and will play back and forth at each other. The UTC Saxophone Quartet will perform a French piece by the brothers Fastin and Maurice Jeanjean (their “Quartet for Saxophones”) and a work by minimalist composer Michael Torke, titled “July.”