UND Wind Ensemble and Band performance set for March 8 at the Fritz

The University of North Dakota Wind Ensemble and University Band, conducted by UND Professor of Music James Popejoy, will showcase a concert Sunday, March 8, at 3 p.m. in the Chester Fritz Auditorium. The Wind Ensemble will open their portion of the program with a unique set of pieces: John Philip Sousa’s The Thunderer,\u22 followed immediately by Ira Hearshen’s tribute work to “The Thunderer” from his Pulitzer Prize-nominated Symphony on Themes of John Philip Sousa. UND senior trumpet performance majors Dillon Parker and Nathan Stoerzinger will be the featured soloists with the Wind Ensemble on Concerto for Two Trumpets, a new work by Erik Morales. Percy Grainger’s delightful Handel in the Strand,” and Epinicion,” John Paulson’s intense aleatoric composition from the 1970s, are also on the program. Robert Brooks, associate director of bands at UND and the Wind Ensemble will close its portion of the concert with a performance of Tempered Steel.” The University Band will open its part of the concert with Cenotaph by Jack Stamp, and the Masque by Francis McBeth. Also on their program will be an arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, as well as two contemporary works: Christopher Tucker’s award-winning Twilight in the Wilderness and Fusion by Brian Balmages. Tickets are available at the door: $6 for adults, $3 for students and senior citizens, or $12 per family