CEU is alive with the sound of music

The Eastern Utah Wind Symphony, a college-community ensemble at College of Eastern Utah, will present the first concert of its 2005-06 season on Saturday, September 24 at 7:30  p.m. in the Price Civic Auditorium.
The program “Strings Attached” will offer listeners a change from the group’s usual concert band fare by featuring a mixed chamber ensemble comprised of string, woodwind, brass, percussion and keyboard instruments.
To open the concert, the audience will be treated to Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Composed for orchestra in 1897, this music was immortalized decades later in the Disney film Fantasia, with Mickey Mouse portraying the naughty apprentice. The Eastern Utah musicians will perform a challenging chamber version of this work.
Next on the program will be music by the great Johann Sebastian Bach. Among Bach’s prolific output were a number of trio sonatas. This important genre of the Baroque period blended two upper parts, usually performed by violins, with a harmony-bass part, typically realized by cello and harpsichord. Performing two movements from Sonata II will be violinists Billy Brown and Melissa Urry, cellist William Capps and keyboardist Jennifer Chiara.
The centerpiece of the program will be Sergei Prokofiev’s musical setting of the famous tale, Peter and the Wolf. The characters in this story – the bird, the duck, the cat, the grandfather, the wolf, the hunters, and Peter – are all depicted by catchy melodies. Rather than present the original version for full orchestra, the musicians will again perform a chamber transcription. Appearing as narrator for Peter and the Wolf will be Corey Ewan, theatre professor at CEU.
Scott Joplin’s popular rag, The Entertainer, will conclude the concert. Ragtime music was at its height around the turn of the twentieth century and is regarded as an important forerunner of jazz. The style is characterized by appealing melodies, syncopated rhythms and balanced phrases. New generations were introduced to Joplin’s music in the 1970s when it was heard prominently in the Academy Award-winning film, The Sting.
In addition to the musicians previously listed, others who will perform on the concert include flutist Jessica Tuttle, clarinetist Adam Cunningham, bassoonist Brian Peterson, trumpeter Paul Brown, trombonist Richard Dart, and percussionists James Dart  Jr. and James Dart  Sr. Pre-concert music will be presented in the Civic Auditorium lobby by violinists Kate Kilbourne and Melissa Urry. The conductor of the Wind Symphony is Gregory Benson.
The Eastern Utah Wind Symphony’s September  24 “Strings Attached” concert is sponsored by Price Culture Connection. Admission is free.