Westchester Symphonic Winds To Continue Its 31st Season With 'Liberty And Equality'

By: Apr. 15, 2019
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Westchester Symphonic Winds To Continue Its 31st Season With 'Liberty And Equality'

The Westchester Symphonic Winds will continue its 31st Season with "Liberty and Equality," an uplifting concert at the Tarrytown Music Hall (13 Main Street, Tarrytown, NY) on Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 8:00 p.m. The program will include six moving and uplifting pieces for the wind ensemble, including a new arrangement of highlights from the Tony Award-winning Broadway smash hit musical, Les Misérables by band member, Barton Green. Seven soloists were selected through a vocal competition this past fall, who will be featured prominently in the medley. The winning soloists include: Jennifer Dapice, soprano; Emily Geller, mezzo; Jessica Bogart, mezzo; John Gomez, tenor; Brian Shaheen, tenor; Tommy Leo, tenor; and Björn Olsen, baritone. Dr. Joseph Higgins will guest conduct, leading the ensemble in a performance of Unquiet Hours by David Biedenbender. Westchester Symphonic Winds conductor, Maestro Curt Ebersole will lead the group in other works, including Lauds, by Ron Nelson; Suite Français, by Darius Milhaud; Liturgical Dances, by David Holsinger; and The Hope Within, by Benjamin Dean Taylor. Tickets are now on sale at www.tarrytownmusichall.org.

The 65-member band is made up of individuals dedicated to performing and sharing the concert band tradition with Westchester audiences, and includes music educators, doctors, lawyers, engineers, bankers, and professionals from diverse backgrounds. In residence at Tarrytown Music Hall, the Westchester Symphonic Winds has also performed for sold-out audiences in the Venetian Theater at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah. The band was featured in a New York Times article in October 2015, as well as Teaching Music, the official magazine of the National Association for Music Education.

During Maestro Ebersole's tenure, the ensemble has been honored with several high-profile performances. These have included the band's Lincoln Center debut at Avery Fisher Hall in 2010, performances at the New York State Band Directors Association Symposium in 2017, the Association of Concert Bands Convention in 2012, and a collaboration with the Northshore Concert Band to present concerts at Northwestern University in 2015 and the Palace Theater in Stamford in 2016. In addition to its yearly concert series as ensemble-in-residence at the Tarrytown Music Hall, WSW has worked with public school bands, advancing their love of the concert band experience, and demonstrating that music-making can extend into adulthood, regardless of one's profession.

Tickets for this performance are priced at $20 for adults, $15 for students and seniors, and free of charge for children under 10. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Tarrytown Music Hall box office, by calling 877-840-0457, or online at www.tarrytownmusichall.org.

Westchester Symphonic Winds is a 501(c)3 charitable organization and exists through the generosity of its friends. Contributions may also be sent to Westchester Symphonic Winds, Box 485, 333 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, New York 10605.

For more information, please visit westchestersymphonicwinds.org.

About The Westchester Symphonic Winds
Thirty-one years ago, this adult community band was founded to give Westchester area musicians the opportunity to relive the musical and social experience of playing in their high school concert band. First known as the Hudson Valley Wind Symphony, the group has grown to 65 wind and percussion players, and has found a permanent home at the Tarrytown Music Hall. The band has changed its name to the Westchester Symphonic Winds, to better reflect that its members are drawn from Westchester County and the surrounding tri-state metropolitan area. The Westchester Symphonic Winds exists to promote music in our area, instill pride in our nation and heritage, provide opportunities for personal expression and growth within our membership, and nurture the love of music by offering an exceptional musical experience for people of all ages.

The ensemble has profited from the leadership of its conductors. James D. Wayne conducted the band from 1988-2004. Dr. Luis Fernando Jimenez and served as conductor from 2005-2008. Curt Ebersole was invited to conduct the 20th Anniversary Gala Concert in 2008, and was subsequently invited to stay on permanently as Conductor/Music Director. During Maestro Ebersole's tenure, the ensemble has been honored with several high-profile performances. These have included our Lincoln Center debut at Avery Fisher Hall in 2010, performances at the Association of Concert Bands National Convention in 2012 and the New York State Band Directors Winter Symposium in 2017, and five sold-out performances at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, New York. In addition, guest conductors and clinicians have included the finest wind band conductors from across the nation, and superb soloists, both guests and those from within the ensemble, have headlined our programs.

Over the years, we have given concerts on behalf of many service and benefit organizations. Our educational outreach program has included a Side-by-Side Concert with the Mahopac Central School District. Our Exchange Program with the Northshore Concert Band of Evanston, Illinois, provided opportunities to perform at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall at Northwestern University and the Palace Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut. Our Apprentice Conductor program gives music educators from within the group an opportunity to conduct the ensemble, with coaching and feedback from Maestro Ebersole. The ensemble has been the subject of articles in The New York Times and Teaching Music, the magazine of the National Association for Music Education.

Like many avocational groups, WSW members represent many backgrounds and vocations, but the common thread is the love of the concert band experience. Since a broad cross-section of the public has never heard a serious concert band, one of the aims of the group is to expose music lovers to this wonderful, vast repertoire. The organization is an Ensemble-in-Residence at the historic Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York, and rehearses there on Monday evenings from September through June.



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