KSC Concert Band Honors the Cohen Center's 25th Anniversary
KEENE, N.H., 04/02/08 - The Keene State College Concert Band will perform “To Remember … and to Teach,” a concert dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies, on Thursday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. Admission is $10 for the general public and $5 for KSC students, senior citizens, and youth ages 17 and younger. Tickets are available through the box office at 603-358-2168 or online at www.keene.edu/racbp.
The ensemble will perform “March” from the Symphonic Metamorphosis by Paul Hindemith, Eine Kleine Yiddishe Ragmusik by Adam Gorb, and Frank Ticheli’s powerful arrangement of “Amazing Grace.” “Pie Jesu” from Requiem in D Minor op. 48 by Gabriel Fauré will feature KSC senior and mezzo-soprano Shannon Ward of Sutton, Vt. Kol Nidrei op. 47, by Max Bruch, will be performed by KSC faculty member and tenor saxophonist Craig Sylvern. Compositions by W. Francis McBeth and John P. Zdechlik will also be performed.
The program’s title is the motto of the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies, one of the oldest Holocaust resource centers in the United States. Founded in 1983, the Center is a nonsectarian organization located on the Keene State campus. It performs an important service to all of New England by fostering Holocaust and genocide awareness through its collection of historical materials and model outreach programs, and by following the charge of founder Charles Hildebrandt, “to remember … and to teach.”
The band is directed by Jim Chesebrough, who received his bachelor of music education degree from Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, and his master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from the University of Connecticut. In addition to conducting the KSC Concert Band, Chesebrough is assistant professor of music at Keene State, where he teaches classes in music education, conducting, and applied music. He is frequently called upon as an adjudicator, guest conductor, and clinician throughout New England. He conducts the Newmont Military Band, a re-creation of a small-town brass band of the late 1800s. In 1998, the New Hampshire Band Directors’ Association honored him as their Outstanding Band Director of the Year.
The celebration of the Cohen Center’s 25th anniversary continues on Saturday, May 3, at 8 p.m. with the debut performance of Kaddish, an original musical composition for voice and chamber orchestra by Lawrence Siegel, also performed at the Redfern Center for the Arts on Brickyard Pond. The performance is sold out, and tickets are available to a simulcast in the Recital Hall. Simulcast tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 for KSC students, senior citizens, and youth ages 17 and younger.
