Department of Music presents ASU Mid-South Honor Band April 5

April 2, 2008 -- The College of Fine Arts and the Department of Music at Arkansas State University are pleased to announce the first ASU Mid-South Honor Band event to be held on Saturday, April 5, in Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro. This event differs from other honor bands because this event is designed primarily for high school juniors and sophomores. Students from more than 20 different high schools across the mid-south will participate in this event.

Students will rehearse during the morning and afternoon, and then present a concert beginning at 7:00 p.m. Saturday night. Admission is free. The ASU Wind Ensemble, conducted by Dr. Timothy Oliver, director of bands and coordinator of wind and percussion studies, will lead the musicians of the ASU Wind Ensemble in a short concert presentation following the performance by the Mid-South Honor Band.

By taking part in this event, students will have the opportunity to work with ASU music faculty and students, as well as the guest clinician for the Mid-South Honor Band, Professor Eric Rombach-Kendall. Professor Rombach-Kendall has served as director of bands at the University of New Mexico since 1993. His bands have received national acclaim through their performances and recordings, which also feature Philip Smith and Joseph Alessi of the New York Philharmonic.  Rombach-Kendall has been a guest conductor and clinician throughout the United States and Canada and has published articles in The Instrumentalist and Teaching Music Through Performance in Band.  He also serves as vice president of the College Band Directors National Association and is an alumnus of the University of Michigan, where he studied conducting with H. Robert Reynolds and Larry Rachleff.

The program for the Mid-South Honor Band will include “The Battle Pavane by Tielman Susato” arranged by Bob Margolis; “Amazing Grace” arranged by William Himes; “Loch Lomond” by Frank Ticheli, and “American Riversongs” by Pierre LaPlante.  The program for the ASU Wind Ensemble will include “Four Scottish Dances” by Malcolm Arnold, arranged by John Paynter, and “Magulina” by Paul Bassler.

The ASU Wind Ensemble will conclude its 2007-2008 Concert Season on Thursday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m., when the group will present a concert program, “Dances Du Jour” at Fowler Center.

Schools participating in the Mid-South Honor Band include Batesville High School, Bigelow High School, Bradford High School, Bryant High School, Highland High School, Jonesboro High School, Marion High School, Mineral Springs High School, Morrilton High School, Mountain View High School, Nettleton High School, North Pemiscot High School, North Pulaski High School, Pangburn High School, Paragould High School, Rector High School, Salem High School, Trumann High School, Valley View High School, Viola High School, Westside High School, and Woodland High School.

For more details, please call the Music Department Office at (870) 972-2094.

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