AU Symphonic Band, Ashland Community Band presenting Winter Concert on Dec. 6

\ASHLAND, Ohio – Ashland University’s annual Winter Festival Band Concert will be held this Friday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m., at Hugo Young Theatre in the Center for the Arts. The free concert features the AU Symphonic Band and the Ashland Area Community Band and includes a series of holiday-themed selections.

\Each ensemble is conducted by Joseph Lewis Jr., director of bands at AU.

\The AU Symphonic Band, consisting of about 60 students from Ohio and across the U.S., features a high level of artistry and musicianship and performs an array of literature. On the docket for Friday night are “Where the Black Hawk Soars,” a soaring melody reminiscent of the flight of a hawk by Robert W. Smith; “Winter’s Revel,” a declarative melody featuring sleigh bells by Erika Svanoe; “Sleep My Child” by modern Grammy Award-winning composer Eric Whitacre; and “Them Basses, which has been used in countless movies and television shows.” by Getty Huffine.

The Ashland Area Community Concert Band, founded in 1993, is an ensemble that includes both university students and members of the community and performs a wide variety of literature from Broadway selections and classic marches to masterworks transcribed for concert band. Friday’s concert selections include “Procession of Nobles,” a grand march by Rimsky Korsakov; “Stille Nacht (Silent Night),” the popular Christmas carol composed by Franz Gruber; “La Sorella,” a melody that evokes the sights and sounds of France by Charles Borel-Clerc; “Lux Aurumque (Light and Gold),” a Christmas-based piece on a Latin poem by Whitacre; “A Christmas Festival,” a well-known holiday arrangement by Leroy Anderson that the audience will tap their feet too.

For more information, please contact Joseph Lewis Jr. at jlewisjr@ashland.edu or 419-289-5132.