A wide range of music could be heard by both the UT Symphonic Band and the University Wind Ensemble yesterday at Doermann Theatre.
The concert, which started at 8 p.m., opened with the Symphonic Band playing “standard band repertoire,” according to Director of Bands Jason Stumbo.
Opening the performance was Cleveland native’s Clare Grundman’s “American Folk Rhapsody No. 2,” which was written in the 1959 about 19th century folk songs. Familiar tunes such as “Skip to My Lou” can be heard, but have a certain twist added by Grundman, according to Andrew Rhodes, conductor of the symphonic band.
The second piece performed was the “Elegy for a Young American” by Ronald Lo Presti. Probably one of his more popular pieces, Lo Presti wrote the piece after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Rhodes said despite the fact these two pieces were written in similar times, the characteristics of the pieces are different because Grundman’s work is based on tunes from a different time period.
“The harmonies probably don’t feel as familiar; the tunes are simpler,” he said. “In ‘Elegy for a Young American,’ the harmony pushes the envelope and chords are usually things the average person might not be accustomed to. It’s trying to really represent the stages of mourning and create feelings of sadness or anger through the use of musical instruments.”
The centerpiece was Gustav Holst’s “Second Suite in F for Military Band.” Despite being well known for “The Planets,” the “Second Suite” is probably one of Holt’s more popular works. Similar to Grundman, Holst’s piece is based on folk songs, though “Second Suite” focuses on British folk songs instead.
Keeping the pieces in England, the Symphonic band closed with the “British Eighth March” by Zo Elliot, based on the Eighth Army’s campaign in North Africa during World War II.
Following the intermission was a performance by UT’s Wind Ensemble, which is a smaller, more intimate group playing more like a “large chamber ensemble,” according to Stumbo.
The ensemble is comprised of students who auditioned for their spots at the beginning of the semester in which performers were given one week to play excerpts from pieces.
Considered by the program notes as his “most beloved and most performed composition and a pillar in the repertoire of American music,” “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin was the Wind Ensemble’s third piece and involved student Nathanael Leonard as the piano soloist along with the original big band-like instrumentation accompanying it.
Following suit with Gershwin and keeping a jazz-like theme, the program closes with Frank Ticheli’s 1997 piece “Blue Shades.”
According to Stumbo, the ensemble’s program started as a large swirl of opportunity and it “just fell into place.”
The program started when Leonard approaching him to play “Rhapsody in Blue,” and everything else worked out after that. Ticheli’s choice was a “nice compliment” and their second piece. Kurt Weill’s “Kleine Dreigroschenmusik” was something Stumbo always wanted to play and it was written at the same time as Gershwin’s work.
“Because it’s a band concert, you have to play a march,” he said. “And that’s how the program came together.”
is a member of the 
