Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Wind Ensemble at Stephen F. Austin State University will present “Faces & Places” when the student group performs at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.
The concert will feature Dr. Jacob Walburn, assistant professor of trumpet at SFA, as soloist on American composer John Mackey’s iconic trumpet concerto “Antique Violences.” SFA Director of Bands Dr. David Campo directs the Wind Ensemble.
The concert will open with Frank Ticheli’s “Angels in the Architecture,” commissioned by Kingsway International and receiving its premiere performance at the Sydney Opera House on July 6, 2008. Ticheli describes the music as “a dramatic conflict between the two extremes of human existence – one divine, the other evil.” The Sydney Opera House itself, with its halo-shaped acoustical ornaments hanging directly above the performance stage, inspired the work’s title.
The program also features composer Percy Grainger’s “Lincolnshire Posy,” of which he wrote, “This bunch of ‘musical wildflowers’ (hence the title) is based on folksongs collected in Lincolnshire, England, and the work is dedicated to the old folksingers who sang so sweetly to me.”
Following a brief intermission, the Wind Ensemble will accompany Walburn in Mackey’s 2017 landmark work “Antique Violences.” In the program notes for the concerto, A.E. Jaques writes in part, “The title of this four-movement work comes from a line is Rickey Laurentis’ ‘Writing an Elegy’ and reminds us that where there are humans, there is violence. The concerto notes that the trumpet and its ‘cousins’ always ‘call the bloody tune.’ The structure of our social world is born, and reborn, in the mass violence of war; borders are made of blood.”
Closing the program is Jacques Press’ rollicking “Wedding Dance,” from the composer’s symphonic suite entitled “Hasseneh.” “Wedding Dance” is a spirited horah, or traditional Jewish circle dance, displaying an infectious energy and quick tempo.
“With whirling woodwind lines and memorable melodies, the work exudes a fiery energy and relentless pulse in an exciting, no-holds-barred celebration of life,” Campo said.
The concert is a presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music. Concert 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.