2015 Gustavus Honor Band members in rehearsal
The Annual Gustavus Honor Band Festival and Concert will celebrate its 28h year on November 6 & 7 with the arrival on the Gustavus Adolphus College campus of over 250 high school musicians from 54 high schools in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota. Two concert bands with over 100 members each and one jazz band will come to the campus and join in the intensive two-day music festival in Schaefer Fine Arts Music and Christ Chapel. Their work will be presented at the Festival Concert in Christ Chapel on Monday, November 7, at 7:00 p.m. At the Festival Concert, the high school honor bands will be directed by Conductors James Patrick Miller, Heidi Johanna Miller, Karrin Meffert-Nelson and Dave Stamps. They will be joined by special guest artist Ian Jeffress, alto saxophone, and the Gustavus Wind Orchestra. The festival concert is free and open to the public.
The Festival, one of the Music Department’s favorite annual events, has traditionally been a wind ensemble of approximately 100 high school students from around the region who are nominated by their directors to participate in this prestigious learning experience. Due to the overwhelming numbers of interested high school musicians and their directors, the Gustavus Honor Band Festival will once again feature two concert bands, organized and directed by James Patrick Miller, and a high school honor jazz ensemble, coached and directed by the Director of Jazz Studies at Gustavus, Dave Stamps. These students will spend November 6 & 7 rehearsing together, attending workshops, clinics and lessons with members of the Gustavus Department of Music. They will share their work publicly in the Festival Concert at 7:00 p.m. on November 7 in Christ Chapel. The concert is a collaborative effort and will include the three high school honor bands and the Gustavus Wind Orchestra. The Festival and Concert is a fantastic learning experience for these young musicians. Its primary goal is in the “pursuit of musical excellence,” as is stated in the invitation for band directors to nominate their students. The festival also serves to introduce students to a learning community at Gustavus. The students, both at the high school and undergraduate level, will find the intensive experience enjoyable, memorable, and life-changing.
The Frederic Hilary Honor Winds will open Monday’s Festival Concert with John Philip Sousa’s Manhattan Beach March and Francis McBeth’s Chant and Jubilo. They will continue with An American Elegy by Frank Ticheli and conclude their program with the Danse Bohemiane by Randall Standridge. Monday’s festival concert will continue as the 2016 Jazz Honor Band takes the stage to perform Fun Time by Count Basie, the Ballad for Benny by Oliver Nelson, and Mark Taylor’s arrangement of John Lewis’ Afternoon in Paris. The jazz band’s final work will be Matt Harris’ 17 Mile Drive.
2015 Gustavus Honor Band Festival preparation
The Douglas Nimmo Winds will then take their places and present the National Emblem March by E. E. Bagley, and the Cross arrangement of the hymn Be Thou My Vision. The band’s final work on their program is W. Francis McBeth’s five-movement Of Sailors and Whales based on the Herman Melville classic Moby Dick. For the final selections on the festival program, the Gustavus Wind Orchestra, conducted by festival director James Patrick Miller, will welcome special guest artist Dr. Ian Jeffress, alto saxophone, to the stage. Dr. Jeffress is professor of saxophone at Western Carolina University and is in residence for this year’s Honor Band Festival. He will perform David Biedenbender’s Dreams in the Dusk – Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble with the Gustavus Wind Orchestra. Dr. Miller will bring the festival to a close with Henry Fillmore’s The Circus Bee.
The Gustavus Honor Band Festival Concert, in celebration of the 28th year of the Gustavus Honor Band Festival, will be presented in Christ Chapel on Monday, November 7 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are not required. The concert is free and open to the public.