Winthrop’s Department of Music houses several student ensembles, and its ensemble concert series will continue this week with a concert by the Winthrop Symphonic Band under the direction of Dr. Douglass Presley, and the Winthrop Wind Symphony under the direction of Dr. Lorrie Crochet on Feb. 27. Band graduate assistant Alexander Dudek took some time to discuss what makes the two ensembles unique, and what audiences can expect from the concert.
According to Dudek, these particular ensembles only perform a few times a year, including another concert in April. “There’s this tangible excitement in the air, at least coming from the performers, because we don’t get to share what we do with the symphonic band and the wind symphony a whole lot,” Dudek said. “As audience members you can kind of expect to feel some of that excitement.”
The upcoming concert will feature a variety of musical styles, and music composed for a variety of purposes. “The symphonic band in particular has everything from music originally written for orchestra, to music written for voice originally, and then music written for band. So there is a whole lot of variety between the two ensembles that audiences should be really excited about,” Dudek said.
The Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band are both audition based, with members undergoing blind seating auditions that determine which ensemble they are placed in. The top performers are placed in the Wind Symphony, and Dudek says the Symphonic Band is only “a little further behind.”
“The quality of the ensembles is really really close. The Symphonic Band typically has more [performers] who aren’t music majors but [who] played instruments in high school,” Dudek said. “The Symphonic Band is larger, and the Wind Symphony is a little bit more pared down – just the essential instrumentation.”
Because Byrnes Auditorium is offline, the concert and others like it will take place in Tillman Auditorium. “We always like to have new people out in the audience, because ever since we moved to Tillman Auditorium from Byrnes Auditorium it’s been harder to get people out. So people should really come and see the groups perform – it’s really something special that we’re wanting to expose more people to. And even if you’re not a band person or you haven’t had much musical experience, it’s a really cool experience that people should definitely come check out,” Dudek said.
The Symphonic Band and Wind Symphony will perform on Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. in Tillman Auditorium. The concert will last one hour and it is a free cultural event.
