Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Wind Symphony at Stephen F. Austin State University will present the program "Tin Pan Alley" at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 2, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.
The program will showcase music by early 20th century American composers, such as Scott Joplin and George Gershwin, according to Dr. Tamey Anglley, acting associate director of bands at SFA. The concert will also feature SFA School of Music faculty member Dr. Nathan Nabb, professor of saxophone.
Joplin's lesser-known "Combination March" will open the program. "This composition was only Joplin's second published march," Anglley said.
Nabb will perform on L. Mark Lewis' Concerto for Alto Saxophone, which he composed for saxophonist Kenneth Tse in 2009.
Gershwin's "Second Prelude," which he referred to as "a sort of blues lullaby," is the second in a set of three preludes that he wrote for piano in 1926, Anglley explained.
The Wind Symphony will end the concert with one of Gershwin's most well-known pieces, "An American In Paris."
"In 1928, Gershwin composed 'An American In Paris' as a tone poem for orchestra after a trip abroad that inspired him to work in earnest on a recent commission he had received from the New York Philharmonic," Anglley said. "His idea for the new work solidified as he was shopping for Parisian taxi-horns to take back to the US, as he wanted to capture the tumult of Paris' streets in music and create a concert work that didn't center around the piano."
Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit http://www.finearts.sfasu.edu/.