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NSU Bands Take Show on the Road and Present Shrine Benefit Concert at Yelduz Shrine Center
Released April 4, 2008
(ABERDEEN, SD) NSU’s Symphonic Band and Concert Band will present a public benefit concert at 3 p.m. on Sun, Apr. 13 at the Yelduz Shrine Center, 802 S. Main in Aberdeen.
This concert will be the first time the NSU band will take their annual concert on the road. The concert is a benefit for the Yelduz Shrine with desserts and coffee served afterwards. Cost for admission is $8 per person and seating is limited. Tickets may be purchased at the Yelduz Shrine Center and the NSU Fine Arts Office in Spafford Hall on the NSU campus. Tickets are also available at the door the day of the concert.
“The Yelduz Shrine and NSU have a partnership that goes back 53 years to the Shrine Football Game which has become a yearly tradition at NSU,” said Dr. Boyd Perkins, Director of Bands. “Last year we took that partnership to another level when we partnered with the Shrine for a benefit concert at Johnson Fine Arts Center. This year we thought why not take the concert to the Shrine, and we feel this is going to be a positive move that will raise funds to benefit a lot of great kids in Shrine Hospitals.”
The musical theme of the concert is an afternoon in the park. The NSU Symphonic Band under the direction of Dr. Boyd Perkins will be performing several popular and tuneful musical selections. The music being performed includes marches by Sousa, Fillmore, and King, as well as larger works, including variations on a Korean Folk Song, by John Barnes Chance; “Country Band March,” by Charles Ives; “Mars from The Planets,” by Gustav Holst and “Slava!,” by Leonard Bernstein.
“Country Band March,” is a very entertaining piece of music. In 1905 Ives was ‘bored’ with the regular sounding music of the day so he wrote a parody of what a poorly rehearsed concert band might sound like. The piece includes quotations of over forty popular marches and songs of the day. The piece requires that the band intentionally play out of tune and out of time!
“We’ve had a great time preparing the music.”
said Perkins, “The challenge is to play the music exactly
as written, which sounds wrong to the performers, but comes together
as an incredibly well crafted piece.”
In March the band toured Southeastern South Dakota with performances
at several high schools. In addition, the band has also performed
for the NSU Band Clinic, Christmas Concert, Winter Concert, and
the North Area Honor Band.
The NSU Concert Band, under the direction of Dr. Terry Beckler, will also perform selections including “Amazing Grace,” arranged by Frank Ticheli, “American Riversongs,” by Pierre LaPlante, “Trombones Triumphant,” by Don Keller, and “Pathfinder of Panama,” by John Philip Sousa.
The Concert Band at NSU meets on Monday night beginning in October
and welcomes area community members as well as NSU students. This
will be the final concert of the year for this group, however, community
members are invited to participate when the band begins again next
October. Contact Dr. Terry Beckler at tkbeckler@northern.edu
for more information.
About Northern State University
Northern State University is a premier residential institution characterized by outstanding instruction, extraordinary community relations, and unparalleled extracurricular opportunities. In August of 2007 NSU was named by US News and World Report as one of the best undergraduate public institutions in the Midwest. For more information about NSU, visit our Web site at www.northern.edu.
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