Triangle Wind Ensemble’s “Myth, Mischief and Celebration”

This preview has been provided by the Triangle Wind Ensemble.

Triangle Wind Ensemble (TWE) has been invited to perform a showcase concert for the state’s professional music educators at their annual NCMEA Conference in Winston-Salem on Sunday, November 11^th.  Triangle audiences can catch a preview of the program when TWE presents its fall concert on November 9^th at the Cary Arts Center, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Music Director Evan Feldman has chosen five significant works that are exciting and  listenable for audience members, challenging for the musicians, and that show off several soloists’ talents. Strikingly varied in style, the five pieces are unified by their rootedness in celebration, spirituality and narrative.

The centerpiece of the program is a suite from Leonard Bernstein’s monumental MASS, composed for the opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971. The Canadian Brass and the Eastman Wind Ensemble jointly commissioned a suite drawn from the MASS, which uses select mass movements featuring brass instruments to represent the vocal lines in the original. The soulful and ecstatic work exhibits Bernstein’s trademark rhythmic intensity and memorable melodies. 

Two works by Australian composers draw upon folk music and dance: David Stanhope’s Droylsden Wakes is based on a classic English folk song, while Percy Grainger’s Handel in the Strand, originally titled “Clog Dance,” is suggestive of  the baroque composer G.F. Handel donning a top hat and tails and dancing down The Strand, a famous street in London known for its theaters purveying musical comedy.

The young American composer Nathan Tanouye’s work, Kokopelli’s Dance, was commissioned by the University of Las Vegas Wind Orchestra in 2005. It has become a popular choice for advanced wind groups and features many soloists from within the ensemble. Kokopelli is a Hopi Indian word and familiar image that depicts a trickster god who represents, among other things, fertility, mischief and the spirit of music.

No wind ensemble program would be complete without a piece by the prolific composer John Williams. TWE offers a charming one: the theme song from the Steven Spielberg film The Terminal. “Viktor’s Tale,” for solo clarinet and wind ensemble,  is based on an evocative, vaguely eastern tune that underscores the bittersweet and comic story. Clarinet soloist James Moon is featured, accompanied by an accordion and the ensemble.

Tickets for the concert are $12 for adults, $8 for students and $4 for children age 5 and under. They may be purchased in advance through etix at www.etix.com or at the Cary Arts Center on the night of the concert.

For more information about Triangle Wind Ensemble, visit www.trianglewind.org.