April 20, 2015 – Three free concerts at Allegheny College this weekend will showcase the talents of students, faculty and additional members of the Meadville community. Student chamber ensembles will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 24 in Ford Chapel. The Civic Symphony will perform at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 25 in Shafer Auditorium. And the Wind Symphony and Wind Ensemble will perform at 3:15 p.m. on Sunday, April 26 in Shafer Auditorium.
Friday’s chamber ensemble recital will feature brass, woodwind and string ensembles. The program includes music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gustav Holst, Charles Gounod, Johann Pachelbel and Anatoly Liadov, among others. Lowell Hepler coaches the brass quintet; Julie Hepler coaches the saxophone ensemble, clarinet ensemble and the woodwind quintet; and Vince Scacchetti coaches and performs in a string quartet and a violin/viola duo.
Cellist and Allegheny College senior Joseph Tonzo will be the featured soloist on Jules Massenet’s “Meditation from Thais” at Saturday’s Civic Symphony concert. The program will also include “A Festival Prelude” by Alfred Reed, Symphony #8 by Franz Schubert, “Hymn and Fuguing Tune #2” by Henry Cowell, “Blue Tango” by LeRoy Anderson and “Sounds from Hollywood – A Medley of Famous Movie Songs,” arranged by Mary Gold. Ronald E. Stitt conducts.
The 85-member Wind Symphony and 40-member Wind Ensemble, which perform on Sunday, are under the direction of Professor of Music Lowell Hepler. The soloists will be mallet percussionists Stephen Anderson, Kyle Murphy and Stephen Corsi in “Serenade for a Picket Fence.” Sunday’s program also includes Henry Fillmore’s march “His Honor,” Frank Ticheli’s “Rest” and “Postcard to Meadville,” John Barnes Chance’s “Incantation and Dance,” Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Camille De Nardis’ “The Universal Judgment,” Bruce Broughton’s “Silverado” and Thomas Knox’s symphonic band arrangement of “God of Our Fathers.”
Photo: Wind Symphony. Photo by Bill Owen