Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band at Stephen F. Austin State University will perform a concert featuring the music of Grammy Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.
Certain selections on the program are dedicated in memory of Caleb Gibbs, SFA freshman music major who died earlier this semester.
The Symphonic Band, under the direction of Dr. Tamey Anglley, assistant director of bands at SFA, will open the concert with Daugherty’s “Alligator Alley,” which is the nickname of the east-west stretch of Interstate 75 between Naples and Fort Lauderdale that crosses through the Florida Everglades.
“Daugherty’s ‘Alligator Alley’ brings our attention to this unique creature and the American highway traveled by many to observe the alligator in its natural environment,” according to Anglley.
The Symphonic Band will perform Daugherty’s “Vulcan,” which is his musical homage to Gene Roddenberry’s interstellar universe as depicted in the classic American television series “Star Trek.”
In a special memorial tribute, the Symphonic Band will collaborate with Dr. Danny Chapa, instructor of low brass/euphonium at SFA, in a performance of John Stevens’ “Benediction,” to be dedicated in memory of Gibbs, who was one of Chapa’s students.
The Symphonic Band will also perform John Philip Sousa’s “The Glory of the Yankee Navy.”
The Wind Symphony, directed by Dr. David Campo, associate director of bands at SFA, will begin the second half of the concert with “Suspiros de España,” the most well-known composition by Spanish pianist and composer Antonio Álvarez Alonso.
Continuing with Daugherty’s work, the Wind Symphony will perform his “Winter Dreams,” which the composer describes as “a contemporary musical reflection on the creative world of Iowa artist Grant Wood.” The piece is inspired by the bleak winter scenes of rural Iowa depicted in Wood’s paintings and black and white lithographs of the 1930s and ’40s, according to Campo.
“A haunting melody evokes a cold winter wind whistling ‘down in the valley,’” Campo explains.
The final two works on the concert – “Resting in the Peace of His Hands” by John Gibson and “Boys of the Old Brigade” by Paris Chambers – also honor Gibbs’ memory.
The concert is a joint presentation of the College of Fine Arts and School of Music.
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 www.finearts.sfasu.edu.