March 7: UND Bands Concert is preview of music educators performance

The University of North Dakota Wind Ensemble and University Band, conducted by James Popejoy, will present a concert on Tuesday, March 7, at 8 p.m. at the Chester Fritz Auditorium. Tickets, available at the door, are $7 for adults, $3 for students and senior citizens, or $14 per family.

The Wind Ensemble’s performance will be a preview of the concert they will present at the 2017 North Dakota Music Educators Association Conference in Bismarck on March 23. They will open their portion of the program with Jack Stamp’s exciting tribute to baseball, Pastime. They will follow that with Lost Vegas, a three movement work dedicated to a bygone era of the Vegas “Strip” by award-winning composer Michael Daugherty. Rounding out their program will be John Philip Sousa’s delightful Easter Monday on the White House Lawn, and the band classic Chorale and Shaker Dance by John Zdechlik. Dr. Brian Pfeifer, an Assistant Director of Bands at UND, will be the featured soloist on Concerto for Vibraphone by Thomas Briggs with the Wind Ensemble.

The University Band will open the concert with a performance of Karl King’s exciting galop, Prestissimo, followed by Windstar from the pen of Claude T. Smith. Other works on their program include the Children’s Folksong Suite of Kevin Walczyk, Vaclav Nelhybel’s classic Festivo, and Warren Barker’s setting of the George Gershwin signature tune, Strike Up the Band. Undergraduate conductor Alaynee Van Ornum will lead the band in a performance of To Dream in Brushstrokes by Michael Oare.

For additional information concerning this concert, please contact UND Bands at 701-777-2815 or james.popejoy@und.edu.