The Brigham Young University Wind Symphony will present a new work by David Maslanka in concert Friday, Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall.
Tickets are $10 for the general public, $9 for alumni and seniors and $6 for students. You can purchase tickets at byuarts.com or by calling the Fine Arts Ticket Office at (801) 422-4322.
The program for the concert consists of just one 72-minute piece: the Symphony No. 9 by Maslanka. The BYU Wind Symphony is part of a national consortium that commissioned this piece in 2011. Maslanka will be present at the concert and at rehearsals leading up to the performance.
He will also present a free public lecture Thursday, Nov. 1 at 11 a.m. in E-400 Harris Fine Arts Center.
The Symphony No. 9 is a large collection of instrumental songs. There are many influences and underlying elements at work including time (memory, passing of time); water (cleansing and life-giving power); nature (river, ocean); and grace (compassion, forgiveness, rest). Each movement embodies one or more chorale melodies or other songs, such as "Shall We Gather at the River" and "O Sacred Head Now Wounded."
Maslanka attended the Oberlin College Conservatory, spent a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and did graduate work in composition at Michigan State University. He has served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University and College of the City University of New York. His has written a variety of chamber, orchestral and choral pieces, with his works for winds and percussion becoming especially well known.
The BYU Wind Symphony, directed by Donald Peterson, is comprised of the finest woodwind, brass and percussion players at the university and has an extremely active concert season. In recent years, the Wind Symphony has performed in the British Isles, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, China, New Zealand, Australia, Finland, the Baltic States and Russia, as well as the Northwest United States and Canada.
For more information, contact Ken Crossley at (801) 422-9348 or ken_crossley@byu.edu.
Writer: Preston Wittwer
