Our spring 2006 concert featured two movements from Robert W. Smith's "Divine Comedy," as well as two movements from H. Owen Reed's "La Fiesta Mexicana." Our Wind Ensemble performed "The Hounds of Spring" by Alfred Reed and closed the performance with Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance." At this year's annual commencement ceremony, Sarah Schwols, a graduating senior music major, was featured in our pre-commencement concert, performing Rossini's Introduction, Theme, and Variations for clarinet and wind ensemble. A lot of great music is in the works for our 2006-07 concert season, which is also my 20^th year as director of bands and brass studies. Please check back later this summer for further information regarding our upcoming performances.

2004-2005 Highlights

The 2004-‘05 concert season has concluded, and our audiences were treated to music from world-class composers, performed by some of the region’s finest young musicians. Our performance hall, the Our Lady of the Annunciation Chapel in U-Mary's Benedictine Center, continues to be not only the finest venue in Bismarck-Mandan, but also remains one of the best in the North-Central region!

Fall 2004 Circle of Cultures: University of Mary Concert Band and Wind Ensemble 

This performance paid tribute to the nationwide celebration of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial. The University of Mary Concert Band and Wind Ensemble was the only organization from within the University of Mary Community that presented for the Circle of Cultures National Signature Event, which took place October 22-31, 2004,at the University of Mary. Our performance on Sunday, October 24 at 4 p.m. featured works composed around the world during the time of Lewis & Clark’s explorations, including pieces by Rossini, Beethoven and Haydn. The music for one of our children’s favorite tunes, "Yankee Doodle," was actually composed shortly before this time period, and our wind ensemble performed a rarely heard version of this work. The wind ensemble and concert band played to a standing-room-only crowd representing many states in the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains regions.

Our 2005 Spring Concert took place in our university chapel on Sunday, March 6, 2005, at 3 p.m.  We have prepared a wide array of music literally “stolen” from various ensembles and genres. Several movements from Saint-Saëns’ "Carnival of the Animals" were performed with the University of Mary Concert Band. This is a children’s favorite, often performed by pianos or orchestra. Speaking of orchestral music, the concert band presented "Slavonic Dance Op. 46, No. 8," by the turn-of-the-century Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. Our top wind and percussion group, the University of Mary Wind Ensemble, opened with the "Light Cavalry Overture" by Franz von Suppé. A definite wind ensemble highlight iwas a recent adaptation of French-impressionist composer Maurice Ravel’s timeless Boléro, thought to be the most-often performed work in the orchestral repertoire.

2003-2004 Highlights

Our primary spring 2004 performance was held in the Our Lady of the Annunciation Chapel on Sunday, March 21 at 3 p.m. This was the second year in a row that our ensemble members had the opportunity to perform in one of the most acoustically superb venues in the Upper Midwest and North-Central regions. Our concert band began with Philip Sparke's "Victory Fanfare" from Five Festive Fanfares. Unlike many fanfare-like works, Sparke's "Victory Fanfare" gives as much opportunity for the woodwinds to shine as it does the brass and percussion. Our performance also included The "Sword and the Crown" by Edward Gregson, Vincent Persichetti's classic work "Pageant, and Life Dances" by William Himes, led by student conductor Luke Keller.

Our wind ensemble, performing the second half of the concert, featured student soloist Amber McConnell on flute, performing "Carmen Fantaisie" (based on Bizet's Carmen) by François Borne, arranged for flute and band by R. Mark Rogers. Also included in the Wind Ensemble portion was David Gillingham's "With Heart and Voice." This work is a major addition to the wind ensemble repertoire, and features beautiful melodic passages and intense rhythmic energy.

Fall 2003: "Tribute to the Wright Brothers' Centennial of Flight," and French Composer Hector Berlioz's "Bicentenary."

Our major fall performance took place Sunday, Nov. 2, 2003, in Arno Gustin Hall on the university's north campus. This concert gave us a wonderful opportunity to highlight two historical anniversaries - The Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk in December, 1903, and the birth of the evocative French composer Hector Berlioz (1803-1869).

Our concert band opened the program with a portion of Berlioz's "Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale, Op. 15." This piece was played for Berlioz's own funeral in 1869 and is one of very few original band compositions by major romantic composers. Also heard on the first half was Jim Curnow's "Where Never Lark or Eagle Flew," which is based on the familiar poem "High Flight" by WW II RAF pilot John Gillespie Magee, Jr. The audience was also treated to an outstanding rhapsody based on the Italian tune "Funiculi-Funicula."

The wind ensemble took the stage for the second half, opening with "Dawn Flight" by British composer Philip Wilby. This is an appropriate tribute to the Wright Brothers in that their newly-invented "aeroplane" cut its teeth in World War I. Wilby deftly intertwines melodies in a portrayal of two bi-planes in mock combat. The program closed with Berlioz's familiar March to the Scaffold from his landmark programmatic work "Symphonie Fantastique, Op., 14."

2002-2003 Highlights

Our Spring Performance was held in conjunction with our university choirs, and took place on Sunday, February 23 in our exquisite Chapel of Our Lady of the Annunciation. The acoustics in this venue are virtually second to none. "It was a moving experience to perform in an atmosphere engulfed in such glorious acoustics," said sophomore horn student Jill Haag. Our concert band performed Cassado's Toccata (originally attributed to Frescobaldi), which was rehearsed and conducted by graduating senior Angeline Larson, from Dawson, MN. NOAH, a work by Montana composer Russ Newbury, was brought back by popular demand, as was the Engulfed Cathedral by Debussy. The wind ensemble performed two major contemporary wind works - Zion by Dan Welcher and Sketches on a Tudor Psalm by Fisher Tull.

2001-2002 Highlights

The wind ensemble, now in its eighth season, opened its half of the program with Leos Janacek’s Sokol Fanfare, an all-brass feature which serves as the first movement of his orchestral monster work Sinfonietta. Next, we featured our new professor of woodwinds, Michelle Kiec, in a performance of Luigi Bassi’s Concert Fantasia on Motives from Verdi’s Opera “Rigoletto.” Our program concluded with the riveting three-movement Gloriosa by Japanese composer Yasuhdie Ito. Our wind ensemble also performed at Christmas at Mary, an annual event that also features the ever-popular Gabrieli Brass Choir.

In the Spring of 2002, we were pleased to present A Celtic Journey: Music from the Emerald Isle to an SRO audience. (We actually placed four audience members on stage!) From Eric Ewazen’s Celtic Hymns and Dances to Be Thou My Vision by David Gillingham and Patrick’s Rune by Stephen Melillo, Arno Gustin Hall was awash with sounds from the Emerald Isle. The Wind Ensemble portion featured David Bedford’s Ronde for Isolde, and Malcolm Binney’s Emerald Breeze, in addition to Hallelujah Fantasy by Walter Hartley.

2000-2001 Highlights

Our year began with a fall performance involving the University of Mary Concert Band, University of Mary Wind Ensemble, and the Northern Plains Ballet (NPB). For the second straight year, the band program teamed up with the NPB in a collaborative performance. The only major collaboration of its kind in the country, "team U-Mary Wind Ensemble/NPB" joined in a staged performance (North Dakota Premier) of Stravinsky's
Firebird Ballet Suite. The concert band presented several works, including Stephen Melillo's David with soprano Jan Knutson, A Copland Tribute (in honor of the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth), and an exuberant Slava! by Leonard Bernstein, led by student conductor Jason Leo Curley.

Our Spring Concert featured the compositional and conducting talents of guest artist-in-residence Mark Camphouse from Radford, Virginia. Mark spent four days on the U-Mary campus rehearsing the Concert Band and Wind Ensemble, leading seminars on "Musical Directions in the 21st Century," and touring our wonderful community and its surrounding area.

Highlights of the concert included Three London Miniatures and Pacific Commemoration by Mark Camphouse, Königsmarsch and also Sprach Zarathustra (theme from the movie "2001") by Richard Strauss, Variations on America by Charles Ives, and Dance of the Jesters by Peter Illych Tchaikovsky.

1999-2000 Highlights

Our fall performance in 1999 produced one of our most successful endeavors in recent history. We teamed up on this Halloween concert for the first time with the Northern Plains Ballet in two performances. The U-Mary Concert Band joined the NPB in a performance of Robert W. Smith's Inferno, while the wind ensemble presented the World Premier of the wind ensemble edition of Through the Labyrinth by Barry Morse. Also performed at this concert were Lord of the Rings by Johan de Meij, Stormworks by Stephen Melillo, Disco's Undead (world premier) by Barry Morse, and Ballet Music from Faust by Gounod.

The spring semester 2000 concert paid tribute to 1,000 years of spectacular music. As with our Century Celebration in 1998-1999, which highlighted 100 years of outstanding band music, Millennial Milestones targeted each century since 1000 A.D. and presented a wonderful aural history of significant musical compositions. Included in this walk through time was Gabrieli's Sonata pian' e forte (the first known piece of music to indicate dynamic levels), Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks, the monstrous Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky, Ron Nelson's Medieval Suite, and Concerto for Percussion and Wind Ensemble by William Childs, performed by senior percussionist Ben Wahlund.