University Letter

UND's faculty and staff newsletter

March 10 Wind Ensemble and University Band concert features guest soloist

Brian Bowman
Brian Bowman

The University of North Dakota Wind Ensemble and the University Band, both conducted by Dr. James Popejoy, will present a concert on Tuesday, March 10, at 8 p.m. The performance will be held at the Chester Fritz Auditorium on the UND campus.

Featured guest soloist on this concert will be world-renowned musician Dr. Brian Bowman, the first to present a euphonium recital in New York City’s Carnegie Hall. With a long and distinguished career as soloist, clinician, recording artist, educator, and administrator, he has held the prinicipal euphonium position and been a featured soloist in the River City Brass Band and the U.S. Air Force Band, as well as every band with which he has been associated.

He has performed as a soloist in all 50 states and around the world, and can be heard on six solo albums and over 35 service band recordings. The first to present a euphonium recital in New York’s Carnegie Hall, he recently retired as Professor of Music at the University of North Texas College of Music. Dr. Bowman will be in-residence for a week of concerts, recitals and masterclasses with UND Department of Music faculty and students.

The University Band will open the concert with excerpts from “Symphony No. 5” of Dmitri Shostakovich, and Calvin Custer’s “Variations on ‘Scarborough Fair.’” Also on their program will be contemporary band works by Timothy Broege and James Curnow.  Bowman will perform two works with the University Band, including a light-hearted duet with UND Low Brass Instructor Joel Pugh.

The Wind Ensemble, in preparation for their upcoming featured performance this spring at the Percy Grainger Wind Band Festival in Chicago, will perform a program of music by Grainger, as well as “Vesuvius” by Frank Ticheli, guest composer and clinician at this Festival. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of this work, Bowman will perform Gordon Jacob’s “Fantasia” with the Wind Ensemble, as well as “The Yellow Rose of Texas Variations” by Lewis J. Buckley, former commander and conductor of the U.S. Coast Guard Band.

Tickets, available at the door, are $7 for adults, $30 for students and senior citizens, or $14 per family.

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