Eastern Utah’s Wind Symphony’s spring concert set for April 10

The Eastern Utah Wind Symphony, a college-community concert band at College of Eastern Utah, will present its spring concert on Saturday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the CEU Jennifer Leavitt Student Center, located at 500 North and 300 East in Price.
Founded in 2001, the Wind Symphony enlightens and entertains audiences by presenting quality performances of fine literature representing many traditional and contemporary styles. The April 10 program will feature special guest soloist Gene Pokorny, principal tuba of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
The Wind Symphony brass will open the concert with a brilliant work from the late 16th century, Giovanni Gabrieli’s Canzon septimi toni No. 2. Next, the full Wind Symphony will perform … and the antelope play, an award-winning composition by John Carnahan, loosely based on “Home on the Range,” that depicts the history of the Antelope Valley in southern California.
The centerpiece of the concert will be Gene Pokorny’s solo performance with the Wind Symphony in Tuba Concerto by Barry McKimm.
Composer McKimm writes, “My foremost thought for this work was to give the tuba long elegant melodies. I always loved this with the tuba. Occasionally, in the orchestral repertoire, the tuba is given this role, and it is then that the tuba is heard as a totally seductive and beautiful orchestral instrument. In a way, the tuba is a quintessential romantic instrument. It is in this role that the true nature of this somewhat overlooked instrument is revealed.”
The Wind Symphony will continue a beautiful setting of a European folk melody, The Water Is Wide. Concluding the concert will be another composition from the 16th century, Tielman Susato’s stately march, The Battle Pavane, as arranged for modern-day concert band by Bob Margolis.
Pokorny was appointed to the position by Sir Georg Solti in 1988. He is a native of Southern California, where he studied tuba with Jeffrey Reynolds, Larry Johansen, Tommy Johnson and Roger Bobo.
After attending the University of Redlands and graduating from the University of Southern California, he played in the Israel Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic. While in Los Angeles, he played in several movie soundtracks, including Jurassic Park and The Fugitive.
In May 2006, Pokorny received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, and in March 2007,  he received an honorary doctorate in music from the University of Redlands.
In appreciation for the time he spent in the Utah Symphony from 1978 to 1983, Pokorny is returning to Utah for several weeks in spring 2010 as a part of his seven-month sabbatical from the Chicago Symphony. He will give tuba recitals, music appreciation classes, master classes, and clinics from the larger cities with universities to schools and community houses in very remote regions.
Pokorny is a member of the Union Pacific (Railroad) Historical Society and spends time as a “foamer” (watching and chasing trains). He is a card-carrying member of The Three Stooges Fan Club (a “victim of soicumstances!”). Pokorny, his wife Beth Lodal (a musician who happens to have a real life), and their basset hounds, etc. (non-musicians who, when they are howling, sound better than any tuba on the planet), regularly forage from their refrigerator, which is located in Forest Park, Ill.
The concert in the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center is sponsored by the CEU Department of Music. Gregory Benson, music professor and vice president for academic affairs at College of Eastern Utah, will conduct the evening’s performance. Admission is free.