SIUE Wind Symphony and St. Louis Brass Band In Concert
Wednesday February 29, 2012 The SIUE Wind Symphony and the St. Louis Brass Band performed together in Dunham Hall Theater.
The St. Louis Brass band, conducted by John Bell, professor of music at SIUE, is composed largely of high school and middle school band directors along with other enthusiast.
They kicked the evening off with four pieces: “Laudate Donimum” by Edward Gregson; “Music for a Festival” by Philip Sparke; “Gaelforce” by Peter Graham; and “Bandology” by Eric Osterling. This year marks the third year the group has performed at SIUE.
Following the brass band was the SIUE Wind Symphony, also conducted by Bell. The wind symphony is made up of SIUE’s more advanced music students, primarily undergraduates. They performed three pieces including: “Fanfare Aureus” composed by SIUE’s own Kimberly Archer; and “Irish Tune from Country Melody” by Percy Grainger.
The Wind Symphony’s third performance marked the evening’s main event with the playing of all five parts of “A Child’s Garden of Dreams” by David Maslanka. Maslanka was able to come out to the university personally and work with the symphony on the piece.
“We’ve been here for three days now working on the piece, we’ve had a wonderful time making sound.” Maslanka explained.
The five-part piece was inspired by the work of noted psychologist Carl Jung and his research into the collective unconscious. Maslanka wrote the piece while reading a study by Carl Jung where an eight year old girl described predictive dreams of her own death.
“I took those dreams, put them out on my piano and simply began to contemplate them, to imagine them as completely as I could,” explained Maslanka.
Filed Under: Music
