Maine Perspective Front Page
Center Stage
Percussion in Spring
The spring concert of the Percussion Ensemble April 20 is offered just after some members of the group and its conductor, Stuart Marrs, return from Cuba where they attended an international music festival.
The Ensemble's spring concert focuses on the melodic side of percussion - keyboard mallet instruments. A variety of percussion instruments have notes arranged in the same pattern as the piano. What they all have in common is that they are all struck with mallets of some sort rather than played on a keyboard as with the piano, organ or electronic keyboard. However, the bars of each distinct percussion instrument are made of different materials and have different sizes and shapes. Commonly used, and to be part of the April 20 concert at 7:30 p.m., Minsky Recital Hall, are marimba, xylophone, bells, vibraphone and chimes.
The program includes Rhythm Song by Paul Smadbeck, the traditional Mexican work Un Misterio, Quinteto para Marimbas by Marvin Araya, Adagio by Samuel Barber, and Concerto for Marimba and Percussion Ensemble by Ney Rosauro. Breakfast Breakdown by Red Norvo will feature Marrs on xylophone.
The Soul of the Solo
Some of UMaine's most talented jazz artists will be featured in solos in a concert of the Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo in Minsky Recital Hall Thursday, April 22, at 7:30 pm.
Mike Tomaro's original, Altered States, will feature solos by trumpeter Luke Bouchard and Mike Scarpone on the tenor saxophone. Better Git Hit In Your Soul, arranged by Charles Mingus, will feature solos from Christina Lamare on trumpet, Chris Strange on alto sax, Tim Hart on tenor sax, and Darryl Blease on drums. Blue Birdland, recorded by Maynard Ferguson, features solos by Jessica LePage on piano, Bronya Hamel on Harmon-muted trumpet, Marc Heskett on alto sax, Dan Labonte on trombone, and Scarpone on tenor sax.
Clockwork features solo work from LePage, Hamel, Strange and Trevor Marcho, trombone. Frank Mantooth's original hard rock composition, Dangerous Precedent, features solos from guitarist Tom Painter, and Bryan Cook and Scarpone, tenor sax. Bryan Kidd's Day Shift, written in an updated 1940s style, will include solos from Blease, Hart and Lamare.
Donna Lee by Charlie Parker features the saxophone section and solos by Painter, Scarpone, Strange and Labonte.
Cootie Williams' trumpet solo in Duke Ellington's Harlem Air Shaft will be recreated by Bouchard, and Barney Bigard's clarinet solo will be performed by LePage. Lester Young's Lester Leaps In features solos from Marcho and Scarpone.
Matt Harris' original, Hands Off, is a gospel rock chart featuring an appearance on saxophone by Karel Lidral, director of both the Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo.
Bands Take Hutchins Stage
The Symphonic and the Concert Bands will perform in Hutchins Concert Hall, Maine Center for the Arts, Tuesday, April 13, 7:30 p.m.
The Concert Band, conducted by Christopher White, director of sports bands, will open the program with selections of band music, including Fanfare and Salutation by Roger Cichy, Blues for a Killed Cat by Jack End, and Simple Song by Andrew Boyson Jr.
The Symphonic Band will perform a program of band literature selected from the last half-century. Conducting is Director of Bands Curvin Farnham. The program will include George Washington Bridge by William Schuman, Blue Shades by Frank Ticheli, and R.B. Hall's Greetings To Bangor march.
Anatole Wieck, who directs the University of Maine Orchestra, will guest conduct the Symphonic band in Wagner's Huldigungsmarsch.
Two Evenings of Opera Scenes
The UMaine Opera Workshop will present scenes from a wide variety of operas Friday and Saturday, April 16-17.
The performances at 7:30 p.m., Minsky Recital Hall, will include Gounod's Faust, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, and Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief.
Opera Workshop is directed by Nancy Ogle, Francis Vogt and Luke Hedger, accompaniment is by Alison Moore.
Chorale Concert
The Collegiate Chorale will be performing contemporary choral selections in its spring concert at 2 p.m., Sunday, April 18, Minsky Recital Hall.
The works include a set of songs, Four Pastorales, written by Cecil Effinger for choir and oboe solo, featuring oboist and English bassoonist of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, Louis Hall. The concert also will include a performance of the opera chorus "Va Pensiero" from Nabucco by Verdi.
Accompanist is Alison Moore. Directing the Chorale is Shannon Chase, a graduate student in choral conducting.
Dancing Into Spring
Student and faculty works will be featured in the Annual Spring Dance Concert, 7:30 p.m., April 23-24, Hauck Auditorium. Faculty choreographing include Kelly Holyoke, jazz and ballet; Cid Dyjak, modern; Janet Warner-Ashley, modern ballet; and Ann Ross, modern. Highlights include a performance by members of the Swing Dance Club. Other artists include Kimberly Pietz performing an upbeat jazz solo, Summer of '69, that won her acclaim in national competitions.