Centenary Wind Ensemble to perform twice in March
SHREVEPORT, LA — Music by Shostakovich, Bernstein, Arturo Marquez, Sousa, Percy Grainger, and Frank Ticheli is on the program for two upcoming concerts by the Centenary Wind Ensemble. The group will perform Sunday, March 24, at 2:30 p.m. in Anderson Auditorium and again on Thursday, March 28, at 5:00 p.m. in the Hargrove Memorial Amphitheater. Both concerts are free and open to the public.
The Wind Ensemble is a mix of Centenary students, staff, faculty, and community musicians who combine their talents to provide a full band experience for Centenary music students and to perform great works of concert music for the entire community. The group is under the direction of Thomas Hundemer, a lecturer in music and director of the music library at Centenary’s Hurley School of Music.
Hundemer has designed an eclectic program that celebrates an important musical anniversary, showcases student talent, and complements the season theme for another key group at the Hurley School of Music, the Centenary College Choir.
The Bernstein piece, “Overture to Candide,” finishes a season-long commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The Wind Ensemble played Bernstein’s “Danzón” in the fall semester.
“We’re also doing ‘Cajun Folk Songs II’ by Frank Ticheli, who is a native of Monroe, LA, and a very popular composer of band music,” explains Hundemer. “One feature of the piece will be a nice solo played by graduating senior saxophone player Lucas Lawrence. Incidentally, the Centenary College Choir is also featuring south Louisiana traditional music this year in preparation for their upcoming trip to French Canada, the home of the Acadians before they were expelled by the English.”
The concert opens in traditional fashion with a Sousa march, “Nobles of the Mystic Shrine,” and also features a selection from Percy Grainger, one of the most performed band composers who is noted for his compositions based on folk songs from the British Isles.
The Wind Ensemble is also excited to be performing the Finale to Dimitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, a very dramatic piece of music thought by many critics to have veiled references to the brutality of the Soviet regime under Josef Stalin. A dance music composition by the Mexican composer Arturo Márquez, “Danzón No. 2,” rounds out the concert. Marquez’s music has been influenced by his heritage as the son and grandson of mariachi and folk musicians from the northern Mexican state of Sonora, but his nine danzónes also reflect the music and region of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. Hundemer lived in Veracruz for several years in the 1980s before coming to Shreveport.
A food truck from La Michoacana will be available at the March 28 outdoor concert in the Hargrove Memorial Amphitheatre (“the Shell”).