ST. GEORGE – The Dixie State College Jazz Ensemble, Symphony band, Orchestra, Woodwind Ensemble and others will be performing final concerts for the 2011-12 season in April.
Jazz Ensemble Year-End Concert April 19
The Dixie State College Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of DSC Music Department Chair Glenn Webb, closes its 2011-12 performance season with a concert on Thursday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m., at the DSC Dolores Dore’ Eccles Fine Arts Center Mainstage Theater.
The Jazz Ensemble will perform many traditional and innovative classics in jazz history, including the music of Glenn Miller, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington, in addition to new arrangements of contemporary music. In addition, the Ensemble will debut new arrangements of contemporary music, while more than a dozen students will be featured as soloists with the band.
The Jazz Ensemble will also be joined on stage by the DSC Guitar Ensemble, under the direction of Lisle Crowley.
General admission tickets will be available at the door for $5 for adults and $1 for DSC students and faculty and staff with current ID. Patrons may also purchase tickets online at www.dixiestatetickets.com. For tickets and further information, please call 435-652-7800 or visit the DSC Avenna Center Ticket Office.
High school musicians may receive complementary tickets by contacting the Dixie State College Music Department at 435-652-7790.
Symphony band presenting “Rhapsody in Blue” April 20
The Dixie State College Symphony Band will take the stage for the final time this 2011-12 academic year to present “Rhapsody in Blue” on Friday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m., in the Dolores Dore’ Eccles Fine Arts Center Concert Hall on the DSC campus.
The DSC Symphony Band is under the direction of longtime conductor Gary Caldwell, who is in his 33rd-year as director of bands at DSC. Caldwell noted that he chose the title of “Rhapsody in Blue,” not only because is it one of the main pieces, but because “it’s kind of catchy.” He said “Rhapsody” will also highlight the talents of junior music major and pianist Katie Palmer of Price, one of the many DSC’s outstanding music majors who will perform that evening.
“We’re presenting George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ using the original orchestration for 26 players as done in 1924 by the Paul Whiteman Band,” Caldwell said. “Our audience will treated to hear exactly how the composition was scored for that premiere.”
In all, the DSC Symphony Band will perform eight stirring compositions, beginning with “First Suite in E-flat for Military Band” and “Second Suite in F for Military Band,” followed by the Gershwin classic “Rhapsody in Blue.” In addition, the band will perform “Beautiful Oregon” by James Barnes, along with the premiere of an original composition entitled “Scenario Grandiose,” written by 2011 DSC graduate Ben Stratford. For Stratford, “Scenario Grandiose” is his third original composition publically performed by the DSC Symphony Band.
The band will also perform Brian Balmages’ “Silence Overwhelmed,” the Robert Sheldon work “Metroplex,” a musical portrait of the Manhattan cityscape which premiered in Carnegie Hall in 2005. The ensemble will close the evening with Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition: Finale,” written in honor of the composer’s friend, Viktor Hartmann, a creator of some 400 works of art during the 1800’s.
General admission tickets will be available at the door for $5 for adults and $1 for DSC students and faculty and staff with current ID. Patrons may also purchase tickets online at www.dixiestatetickets.com. For tickets and further information, please call 435-652-7800 or visit the DSC Avenna Center Ticket Office.
DSC Orchestra concludes season with annual Spring Concert April 21
The Dixie State Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. Paul Abegg, will conclude its 2011-12 concert season with its annual Spring Concert on Saturday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m., in the Avenna Center Cox Auditorium on the DSC campus.
The Dixie State Symphony Orchestra will be joined on stage by guest organist Andrew Unsworth, who serves as one of three full-time organists for the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Unsworth participates in the daily recital series and accompanies the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on their weekly radio and television broadcast, “Music and the Spoken Word.”
Prior to this appointment, Unsworth served as an assistant professor of music at Stephen F. Austin State University, and as organist and assistant director of music at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City. He has performed throughout the United States and Europe as a soloist and accompanist, and was a recitalist at national and regional conventions of the Organ Historical Society and American Guild of Organists. He currently serves as a member of the Organ Historical Society’s Publications Governing Board.
Unsworth will accompany the DSC Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Saint-Saens’ “Symphony No. 3.” In addition, the Orchestra will perform works by Turina, Adams and Brahms.
In addition to the April performance, the Symphony Orchestra will perform during Dixie State’s 101st-Annual Commencement Ceremonies on Friday, May 4.
General admission tickets will be available at the door for $5 for adults and $1 for DSC students and faculty and staff with current ID. Patrons may also purchase tickets online at www.dixiestatetickets.com. For tickets and further information, please call 435-652-7800 or visit the DSC Avenna Center Ticket Office.
Final Woodwind Chamber Spring Concert April 22
Dixie State College of Utah’s Department of Music will present the final woodwind chamber concert of the 2011-12 performance season on Sunday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m., at the DSC Dolores Dore’ Eccles Fine Arts Center Concert Hall.
The Woodwind Ensemble consists of two performance groups, the Flute Choir, featuring under the direction of Dr. Candice Behrmann, the DSC Saxophone Ensemble, led by DSC music faculty member Rhonda Rhodes. The Flute Choir will features 10 DSC student members playing a full range of instruments from the flute family, including piccolos, flutes, alto flutes and bass flutes.
The Saxophone Ensemble showcases student performance on the soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones. In addition, the Southwest Symphony Woodwind Quintent will perform “Three Shanties for Wind Quintet,” composed by 20th Century English composer Malcom Arnold.
“The ensemble will play a wide variety of music dating back from the 1500s up to the present day,” Rhodes said. “The audience will see a staging of an antiphonal period double quartet by Gabrielli, as well as music by Bach and Mozart. Their appetite for funk and jazz music will also be fed.”
General admission tickets will be available at the door for $5 for adults and $1 for DSC students and faculty and staff with current ID. Patrons may also purchase tickets online at www.dixiestatetickets.com. For tickets and further information, please call 435-652-7800 or visit the DSC Avenna Center Ticket Office.