Chamber Groups Join Vasa Wind Orchestra in Concert Friday

The Department of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College is pleased to announce a spring concert by the Vasa Wind Orchestra under the directions of Conductor Karrin Meffert-Nelson, Friday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m. in Jussi Björling Recital Hall. In addition to the wind orchestra, this performance will feature three chamber ensembles — the Vasa Trio, the Vasa Saxophone Quartet, the Vasa Brass Quintet — and, under the direction of James DeVoll, the Gustavus Flute Choir. Friday’s performance is free and open to the public.

Friday’s concert is the first spring concert by the Vasa Wind Orchestra under the direction of first-year conductor Karrin Meffert-Nelson. For this performance, Meffert-Nelson has programmed a variety of selections that demonstrate the breadth of music written or arranged for wind orchestra. She has further expanded that field by inviting brass and woodwind ensembles from within the Vasa Wind Orchestra and the Gustavus Flute Choir to participate in this performance.

The Vasa Wind Orchestra will open Friday’s performance with Claude Smith’s Emperata Overture, followed by the Vasa Saxophone Quartet with Arthur Frackenpohl’s Fanfare, Air and Finale and the Sailor’s Hornpipe composed by Henry Cowell. The wind orchestra will return to perform On a Hymnsong of Lowell Mason by David Holsinger, the composer of The Easter Symphony, commissioned by the Gustavus Wind Orchestra and premiered in Christ Chapel in 1995.

Next on the program is the Gustavus Flute Choir and Conductor James DeVoll with two movements from Catherine McMichael’s A Gaelic Offering, followed by the Vasa Wind Orchestra and Three Moods for Band by Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus. The concert continues with the Vasa Brass Quintet performing Sonatina 1 and Sonatina 15 by Gottfried Reiche, the Gustavus Trio with Grant Still’s Miniatures and concludes with the Vasa Wind Orchestra’s performance of Malcolm Arnold’s Prelude, Siciliano, and Rondo.

Friday’s performance by the Vasa Wind Orchestra (and friends) begins at 7:30 p.m. in Jussi Björling Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.