The Gustavus Wind Orchestra and the Department of Music welcomes the twenty-third annual Gustavus Honor Band Festival to the campus this weekend and celebrates it with the Festival Concert at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, November 5 in Christ Chapel. This annual Gustavus music event, organized and conducted by Dr. Douglas Nimmo, concludes the two-day honor band festival which includes rehearsals, seminars, clinics, master classes and demonstrations for the 101 high school musicians representing 43 high schools from across the region who are participating in the festival.
From its beginning in 1988, the Gustavus Honor Band Festival has drawn young musicians, nominated by their high school band directors to participate in the festival, to the campus each fall. Rehearsals scheduled over the two days will bring these talented musicians together to study and prepare music that showcases the variety of music composed or arranged for wind ensemble. Rehearsals begin on Sunday, followed by sectional and ensemble rehearsals and clinics throughout the day on Monday, providing a great musical and artistic experience for these high school musicians.
The program for the festival concert will open with the Honor Band performing works by James Stephenson, Frank Ticheli, Gabriel Musella and Howard Hanson. The Gustavus Wind Orchestra will follow with works by Dana Wilson, David Gillingham, John Newton and Roger Nixon. The combined Gustavus Honor Band and Gustavus Wind Orchestra, under the direction of Douglas Nimmo, will form a 170+ instrument massed wind orchestra to close the Festival Concert and conclude the annual festival with John Williams’ March from the 1979 film, 1941.
The 2012 Gustavus Honor Band Festival Concert, featuring the Gustavus Honor Band and the Gustavus Wind Orchestra, will begin at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, November 5, in Christ Chapel. Both ensembles are under the direction of Douglas Nimmo, conductor of the Gustavus Wind Orchestra and artistic director of the festival. This performance in Christ Chapel is free and open to the public.
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Rehearsal photos from the 2012 Gustavus Honor Band, November 5, 2012
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