Southern Miss Bands to Perform on Consecutive Mondays
Thu, 11/14/2013 - 09:42am | By: Mike Lopinto
The University of Southern Mississippi School of Music will present a pair of lively band performances in consecutive weeks this month.
On Monday, Nov. 18 the Symphonic Winds, under the direction of Dr. Mohamad Schuman, will take the stage at Bennett Auditorium. One week later, Dr. Catherine Rand takes the Bennett podium to lead the Wind Ensemble. Both events are set to begin at 8 p.m. and are free to the public.
The Symphonic Winds is performing in preparation for an appearance at the 76th annual Mississippi Bandmasters Association Convention in Natchez Mississippi in December. Their performance marks the first time a university “second” band has performed as the featured event. It speaks to the exceptional quality and enormous depth of the band program at Southern Miss.
“I am thrilled to be bringing this exceptional group to perform for the state's best and brightest band students,” said Schuman. “We have prepared a wonderful program and look forward to this send off concert in Hattiesburg.”
The Symphonic Winds program features a smorgasbord of band literature from standards, transcriptions, marches and new works. Audiences will enjoy hearing favorites such as “Nessun Dorma,” “Barnum and Bailey's Favorite,” and “Seventy-six Trombones” among others.
Just one week later, the universities' top band, the Wind Ensemble, will perform a challenging program featuring a transcription of Mussorgsky's “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Long lauded for exceptional musical performance, the wind ensemble presents standard-setting performances and has garnered an international reputation for excellence.
“Pictures at an Exhibition” is a programmatic work originally written for piano. Written after the loss of Modeste Mussorgsky's close personal friend Viktor Hartmann, it tells the story of a trip through an art exhibit. Each movement depicts a piece of art that was originally created by Hartmann. Each of these works showed a different location, including places in Poland, France, Italy and the Ukraine.
“We are so happy to wrap up our fall semester with these exceptional programs,” said Rand. “The band program is a testament to our exceptional faculty and incredible students who work to achieve high levels of excellence in all that they do.”
Area band students, directors and music lovers of all kinds are especially invited to attend these two free events.