UMaine band to join BHS for free concert in Bangor

BANGOR – The University of Maine Symphonic Band has been invited by the Bangor High School Band to perform in a joint concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, at Bangor High School’s Peakes Auditorium.

The Bangor High School Band, under the direction of Scott Burditt, will open the program with “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and continue with “Prelude On An American Spiritual” by Carl Strommen and “Pueblo (Land Of Ancient People)” by John Higgins. A student teacher from UMaine, Sarah Michaud, will conduct “Prelude On An American Spiritual.”

The UMaine Symphonic Band, under the direction of Curvin Farnham and assistant directors Scott Burditt, Trevor Marcho and Richard Romanelli, will perform a full program of band music including “Variations On America” by Charles Ives, “Candide Suite” by Leonard Bernstein and “Festive Overture” by Dmitri Shostakovich.

The guest soloist for the evening will be saxophonist Christopher Strange, a 2001 UMaine graduate and doctoral candidate in saxophone performance at the University of Kentucky.

While at the University of Maine, Strange studied with professors Louis Hall and Karel Lidral. He spent a year touring with the Glenn Miller Orchestra as lead tenor and performed at the Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago. Strange has taught at UMaine’s summer music camp, MSYM.

Strange will perform “Ballade” for solo saxophone and band by Alfred Reed and will premiere a new work for saxophone and band, “Sax and Spend,” by UMaine composer Beth Wiemann.

Wiemann, chairwoman of the music division, is an internationally known composer whose compositions have won awards from the Ovis Foundation, Copland House, the Colorado New Music Festival, American Woman Composers and Marimolin as well as various arts councils. Wiemann wrote “Sax and Spend” in the spring of 2008 especially for Chris Strange and the UMaine Symphonic Band.

The concert is free.