KWU
Kansas Wesleyan University’s String Orchestra and Wind Ensemble will perform a joint concert on Thursday.
The performance is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Sams Chapel and is open to the public at no charge.
The String Orchestra, under the direction of Leonardo Rosario, will perform an eclectic mix of music from noted 20th-century composers. Opening the concert will be a performance by two movements written for the motion picture Psycho, composed by Bernard Herrmann.
Aaron Copland’s ballet Rodeo will be featured next, with a performance of the hoedown from this piece set in the Wild West. Copland’s picturesque music – familiar to audiences from many television commercials and other media – will be a highlight of the concert.
The KWU Wind Ensemble, conducted by department chair James McAllister, will feature a selection of pieces that highlight both traditional and new music arrangements. John Philip Sousa’s march King Cotton will begin the program, followed by a transcription of the overture to Mozart’s comic opera The Impresario.
A beautifully lyric piece titled Sleep, by Eric Whitacre, will be followed by a selection of songs from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. Closing the concert will be the terrific First Suite in E-flat by British composer Gustav Holst.