KSC Concert Band Celebrates KSC’s 100th Birthday

From Connie Lester, Redfern: The KSC Concert Band’s spring performance, “Happy Birthday Keene State!” will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Keene State College on Wednesday, March 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Theatre of the Redfern Arts Center.

The band will perform the Suite in Eb for Military Band by Gustav Holst, who wrote the piece in 1909, the year Keene Normal School was founded (and later renamed Keene State College). The band will also play several Keene-related compositions, including a new work, Rise and Fall, by KSC student and music major Brian Campbell. Also being performed is Black Granite III by James L. Hosay, who composed the work as a musical tribute for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our country. This piece will be performed as a tribute to the many veterans who have attended Keene State. The themes stated throughout Black Granite III are heroic and patriotic and lead to a solemn, reflective passage that ends with an energetic reprise of heroic glory.

The performance is the first of the semester. The band’s second concert on Tuesday, April 7, 2009, will also be in celebration of the College’s centennial, featuring John Philip Sousa scholar Keith Brion performing as America’s March King. Brion will direct the KSC Concert Band in a reconstructed performance of an actual Sousa concert from the days of the founding of Keene Normal School. For tickets, or to request accommodations for a disability, please call the box office at 8-2168.