Renowned ISU Wind Ensemble to Perform

Release Date: 3/29/2002. Expired: 4/10/2002

The prestigious Symphonic Wind Ensemble at Indiana State University will perform in concert at The Renaissance Center April 10. Guest conductor will be Dr. Fredrick Fennell.

In partnership with the Dickson County High School Band, the 55-member ensemble will make a stop at Performance Hall during its tour to Nashville for the prestigious National Music Educators National Conference Convention. The ensemble members will stay in the homes of the DCHS band members since the band is recognized as one of the top bands in the region.

Directed by Dr. John Boyd, a nationally recognized composer and arranger for the Ludwig Music Company, the ensemble is ISU’s premier concert band and is comprised of the most proficient woodwind, brass and percussion performers. Recognized for its excellence, the ensemble has earned its reputation by superb concert performances at ISU’s Tilson Music Hall, concert tours throughout the state of Indiana and performances at music conferences in the region and throughout the United States. Conferences include the Atlanta International Band and Orchestral Clinic, Indiana Music Educators and the Music Educators National Conference. Performances include those compositions that require varied and specialized instrumentation in addition to new and traditional music for the wind band from composers of varied ethnic and musical backgrounds.

“It’s a great honor to have Dr. John Boyd and the ISU winds come out to Dickson,” said Mark Kinzer, director of the Dickson County High School Band. “They are one of the premier performing groups in the United States. They called us and said Dickson had been recommended to them as the place to come and play and stay. We don’t know who recommended us, we just know that we were highly recommended by somebody that this is the place in Tennessee to come and play and stay. The band members are very excited. They know Dr. Boyd and Dr. Fennell since they are both composers and arrangers and the band members know them through that. They are anxiously awaiting them.”

Boyd is considered to be one of the most dynamic wind conductors in the nation today. He is equally at home with educational and professional organizations. He has guest conducted the United States Army Band twice, and conducted and lectured at the Royal Northern College of Music at Manchester in England. He also has conducted and lectured at the 9th WASBE International Conference as well as at state and regional CBDNA and MENC performances.

He recorded two critically acclaimed albums with the Kent State University Wind Ensemble as well as works with ISU.

With the ensemble as guest conductor will be Fredrick Fennell, founder of the Wind Ensemble of the Eastman School of Music.

Fennell is best known as the most famous wind ensemble conductor in the world. His numerous recordings, first with the Eastman Wind Ensemble and now with the Tokyo Kosci Wind Orchestra, are the standard against which all other recordings are compared.

He was an assistant to Serge Koussevitsky at Tanglewood, the assistant music director for the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, a conducting fellow at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and conductor in residence at the University of Miami.

During his most distinguished career, in addition to receiving almost every honor the world can bestow for conduction, he has earned the love and admiration of those who have been fortunate enough to play under his direction and those who have come to know him through his appearances all over the world.

The ensemble has recorded compact discs on the Trumedia, Brain and ELF labels. These recordings are regularly featured on National Public Radio stations throughout the United States.

Elaine Sherrill, senior director of the Music Department at The Renaissance Center, said she believes the visit by the ISU Wind Ensemble, and the fact that this is the first year for the convention to be held in Nashville, will give local music educators an opportunity to see and hear a premier ensemble.

“It’s awesome,” Sherrill said. “It’s really an honor to have them here. There will be people from all over the country coming to see them since the NMENC convention is in Nashville. I just hope we have enough seats for everybody.”

The ISU Symphonic Wind Ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in Performance Hall. Tickets are $5 for all seats.

For more information or to purchase tickets call The Renaissance Center at (615)740-5600.

The Renaissance Center is located at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 minutes west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Events - Concerts and Recitals page for more about musical performances.

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