EU Wind Symphony sets concert on Nov. 17

The Eastern Utah Wind Symphony, a college-community band at College of Eastern Utah, will appear in concert on Saturday, November  17, at 7:30  p.m. in the CEU Geary Theatre. Also performing will be the Castle Country Honor Band, featuring talented eighth and ninth grade students from Canyon View, Helper, Mont Harmon, and San Rafael junior high schools in Carbon and Emery counties. Gregory Benson of CEU will share conducting duties on the program with special guest Thomas Root of Weber State University.
The Wind Symphony, conducted by Dr.  Benson, will open the concert with Mosiac, a recent piece that features contrasting instrumental sounds and shifting rhythms. Next will be Courtly Airs and Dances, a multi-movement work from the 1990s that is loosely based on Renaissance styles of the sixteenth century. Dr.  Root will take the podium for the remainder of the Wind Symphony’s program to conduct three of his own compositions: Garlandstone–A Nautical Fantasy draws on nineteenth-century sea songs; Desert Light is a lyrical, descriptive piece commissioned by the Cedar (UT) High School band; and Prelude and Giocoso is a modern work dedicated to the California State University–Long Beach band. The Honor Band’s portion of the concert will open with Dr. Benson conducting themes from Georges Bizet’s Farandole. Next, Dr.  Root will conduct the Honor Band in another of his compositions, Castle Rock Overture. To conclude, the Honor Band will perform Lassus Trombone, a novelty work that will feature both Honor Band and Wind Symphony trombonists.
The evening’s guest composer and conductor, Thomas Root, has served as director of bands and head of music theory at Weber State University for more than twenty years. Dozens of his published compositions have been performed countless times throughout the world.
In recent years, Dr.  Root has led the Weber State University Wind Ensemble in concerts at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington  DC) and Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles). He is in demand nationally as an adjudicator, composer, and conductor, and is past president for the five-state Western Division of the College Band Directors National Association.
Gregory Benson joined the CEU music faculty in 1999. He recently assumed duties as CEU dean of arts & sciences, while continuing as conductor of the Wind Symphony. Over the years, Dr.  Benson has appeared as a clinician and performer in hundreds of diverse locales in the middle, southern, and western regions of the country. He currently serves as Western Division secretary-treasurer for the College Band Directors National Association and has held professional leadership positions at area, state, regional, and national levels.
The Eastern Utah Wind Symphony, a vital cultural resource for CEU and its surrounding communities, aims to enlighten and entertain audiences by presenting quality performances of fine literature representing many traditional and contemporary styles. The November  17 concert by the Wind Symphony and Castle Country Honor Band is sponsored by the CEU Department of Music. Admission is free.