One of the nation’s foremost collegiate concert bands, the Gustavus Wind Orchestra, returns from a 10-day concert tour though the Midwest to celebrate its 135th season of music making with its annual Home Concert. Under the direction of Conductor Douglas Nimmo, the wind orchestra will present its Home Concert at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 16 at Jussi Björling Recital Hall on the Gustavus campus. The performance is free and open to the public.
The Gustavus Wind Orchestra was organized as the first music ensemble at Gustavus in 1878. From that beginning 135 years ago, the wind orchestra has grown to earn international acclaim through the musicianship of its concerts and recordings, as well as its work with world-renowned composers and its national and international touring.
Under his leadership of Professor Douglas Nimmo, the Gustavus Wind Orchestra has focused on building its reputation for quality musical performance, produced five recordings and has toured extensively in the United States, Canada, and abroad. In January 1990, the wind orchestra was honored as the first American ensemble invited to present a concert in the “open” East Berlin, and since that time, the Gustavus Wind Orchestra has toured five times in Scandinavia, Europe and annually across the United States.
For this anniversary concert program, Dr. Nimmo has assembled a program that both illustrates and defines the variety of compositions written for wind orchestra. For example, the program opens with contemporary American composer Jack Stamp’s “The Cloudsplitter Fanfare” and David Gillingham’s “Heroes, Lost and Fallen,” and moves quickly, without interruption, into John Newton’s beloved hymn “Amazing Grace.” The concert continues with a march by John Philip Sousa, Rodney Rogers’ “Prevailing Winds,” and “The Lads of Wamphray” by Percy Grainger. It concludes with “The Promise of Living,” from Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land, David Holsinger’s “In the Spring” and the Gustavus Wind Orchestra’s traditional closer, “Nearer My God to Thee,” by Lowell Mason and Herbert L. Clarke.
This 135th-anniversary Home Concert by the Gustavus Wind Orchestra at Jussi Björling Recital Hall is free and open to the public at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 16. The public is cordially invited to join the members of the wind orchestra for this special event.
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