KSC Concert Band Performs World War II Music
KEENE, N.H. 10/8/01 - As a prelude to Keene State College’s three-day symposium about World War II, the KSC Concert Band, under the direction of Douglas Nelson, will perform a variety of war-related music on Wednesday, Nov. 7.
Works by John Williams, Aaron Copland, and Samuel Barber will highlight the concert, which starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Theatre of Keene State’s Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. Tickets are $7 for the general public and $5 for KSC faculty, staff, students, senior citizens, and youth 17 and under. Call the Box Office at 603-358-2168.
On the program will be Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Samuel Barber’s “Commando March,” and John Williams’s “Schindler’s List” with Craig Sylvern, assistant professor of music, as saxophone soloist.
Thomas F. Kearney, executive editor of the Keene Sentinel, will serve as announcer during the concert, which will open with “Call to Arms” featuring KSC faculty member Daniel Farina as bugler.
The Chamber Singers of Keene, directed by Jean Nelson, will accompany the band in its final two selections: “Hymn to the Fallen” from the film “Saving Private Ryan” and the “Armed Forces Salute,” a band and choral arrangement honoring the five branches of U.S. armed service.
The KSC Commencement Brass Choir will perform in Paul Dukas’s “Fanfare” from the ballet “La Peri,” John Zdechlik’s “Hats Off to Thee” and Copland’s “Fanfare.”
KSC music education major Katrina Gatti will conduct the band during “March of the Women Marines” by Louis Saverino.
In addition to conducting the KSC Concert Band, Nelson is a professor of music at Keene State, where he serves as chair of the Music Department and teaches classes in music education. He is frequently called upon as an adjudicator, guest conductor, clinician, and euphonium soloist throughout New England. He has conducted seven concert tours of Europe with the New England Ambassadors of Music. In 1999, he was selected by Keene State faculty, students, and alumni to receive KSC’s Distinguished Teacher Award.
Kearney, who has been with the Keene Sentinel since 1968, was this year’s recipient of the Yankee Quill Award, honoring career contributions to the quality of New England journalism. He is a former president of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors and served as the society’s editor-delegate to the former Soviet Union and Iran. Kearney also served as announcer for the Sentinel’s Bicentennial Parade.
