Percussion and Sax Ensembles Present Fall Concert

KEENE, N.H., 11/02/09 - The KSC Percussion Ensemble, directed by Christopher Swist, will be joined by the KSC Saxophone Ensemble, directed by Craig Sylvern, for a fall performance on Thursday, November 19, at 7:45 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of 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. For tickets, call the box office at 603-358-2168.

The KSC Percussion Ensemble will perform “Drums… a Lot of Drums,” featuring Alexander Lepak’s Crescendo and John Luther Adams’ Consecration. Also on the program will be Tiempo by Diaz, Garibaldi, and Spiro; Afro Blue by Mongo Santamaria; and Anthony Miranda’s Displacements.

The KSC Saxophone Ensemble will be performing works by Thomas Morley and Arthur Frackenpohl. Two New Hampshire premieres by composers Walter Hartley and Marc Satterwhite are also on the program. Hartley’s Grenadiers’ Gallop was composed in 2009 for the Grenadier Saxophone Workshop that took place this past June at Indiana University Southeast. It uses melodies from the British Grenadiers March arranged more typically to Hartley’s contemporary style. Satterwhite’s piece, Grass/Roots, was composed for The University of Louisville Saxophone Ensemble. The titles of the movements are taken from songs by Kate Wolf and Si Kahn and are references to the natural world as metaphors for the human condition. KSC music faculty member Elaine Broad Ginsberg will be conducting this piece.

Directors Sylvern and Swist are on the music faculty at Keene State College.