The WPI Brass Ensemble, Concert Band, and Orchestra will present their final program of the year Sunday, April 7, at 3pm in Alden Hall.
In this free concert, which is a traditional way the musical groups end the school year, performers have earned the opportunity to either perform or to have pieces they have composed performed through an audition process. This year’s selection features musicians Briana Huie ’16, violin, performing Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending; Julia Tuong ’16, flute, performing Chaminade’s Concertino for Flute; Cassandra Stacy ’13, French horn, performing Strauss’s Concerto No. 1 for Horn and Orchestra; John Arnold ’14 and Ashley Roasano ’15 for arrangements for orchestra; and Dan Cotnoir ’12 for a premiere of his original work for brass ensemble.
According to Weeks, who directs the groups along with assistants Lynne Canavan (orchestra) and Samantha McGill ’09 (band), the 60-piece Orchestra and 90-piece Concert Band have had an extraordinarily successful year. Highlights he recalls with pride include the orchestral accompaniment to the Vox production of Pirates of Penzance in September; in early November the performance by the Concert Band (along with the Stage Band directed by Richard Falco) of a circus-themed Pops Concert to a sold-out crowd; two weeks later, the Brass Ensemble’s premiere of Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony to a standing-room-only crowd at Worcester’s First Baptist Church; and in D-Term the Concert Band’s performance (along with other consortium ensembles) at Mechanics Hall.
