NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State University Wind Symphony will present its first concert of the academic year on Thursday, September 21, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. The concert, titled “Collaborations,” will feature performances by guest conductors, guest artists and student soloists. Admission is free and open to the public. A livestream link will be available at capa.nsula.edu/livesteam.
Dr. Paula Crider will serve as guest conductor for the Wind Symphony. Following a distinguished 33-year teaching career, Crider continues to share her passion for making music as guest conductor, lecturer, clinician and adjudicator in the U.S. and abroad. She is professor emerita at The University of Texas, where she was twice awarded for distinguished teaching.
Crider has taught in public schools at all levels and holds the unique distinction of having been the first female in Texas to serve as director of bands at a class 5A high school. She presents seminars throughout the U.S. Crider serves as coordinator for the National Band Association Young Conductor/Mentor Program, is an Educational Consultant for Conn-Selmer, and was recently appointed to the Midwest Clinic Board. She is a past president of the National Band Association and American Bandmasters Association.
Crider has written numerous articles for The Instrumentalist, The Band Director’s Guide, and National Band Association Journal, and manuals for brass techniques, marching band methods and instrumental conducting. She is co-author for the Masterwork Studies series (Hal Leonard) and author of The Conductor’s Legacy (GIA).
Her awards and honors include the Tau Beta Sigma/Kappa Kappa Psi “Outstanding Service to Music Award,” Sudler “Legion of Merit,” Women Band Director’s International Rose, Grainger Society Medal, Kappa Kappa Psi Bo Makvosky Memorial Award, National Band Association AWAPA Award, 2004 Texas Bandmaster of the Year, Phi Beta Mu Hall of Fame and Midwest Medal of Honor. She considers her greatest honor to be the privilege of working with all who share a passion for excellence in making music.
Four music performance majors will showcase their talents in Robert Schumann’s “Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra.” The students, Carley Johnson, Jelsson Flores, Angie Mejia and Douglas Flores, are all members of the French horn studio at Northwestern State led by Dr. Alexis Sczepanik. The work will be featured during the Wind Symphony’s tour to Central and South America in the spring, where the Flores brothers will present the quartet in their home country of Honduras.
“This work showcases the exceptional talent of our students and their professor,” said Dr. Anthony Pursell, director of bands and conductor of the Wind Symphony. “It also challenges the Wind Symphony to act as an accompanist, much like a pianist has to do when accompanying a soloist. I am excited for Douglas and Jelsson to have an opportunity to perform in a live performance for their friends and family this spring, and for them to have the opportunity to showcase this challenging work with their colleagues. Their collaboration with is a wonderful tribute and testimony of what the arts can do, and it certainly supports the theme of the concert.”
The Wind Symphony will conclude its concert by collaborating with the world-renowned Boston Brass. Since 1986 the Boston Brass has set out to establish a one-of-a-kind musical experience, featuring colorful classical arrangements, burning jazz standards and the best of original brass repertoire. The Boston Brass treats audiences to a unique brand of musical entertainment that bridges the ocean of classical formality to delight regular concertgoers and newcomers alike with great music and boisterous fun. The quintet has played to audiences in all 50 U.S. states, and over 30 countries.
Though the band regularly concertizes as a quintet, the Boston Brass also performs with orchestras, concert and marching bands, organists and jazz bands and regularly collaborates with composers to create new works for the brass canon. They will collaborate in a work that displays multiple variations of cinematic sounds by Rick DeJonge, appropriately titled, “Sounds of Cinema.” Concluding the concert will be a new twist on John Phillip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.”
“Having the Boston Brass collaborate with the Wind Symphony means you must let these guys have a little fun, which will also allow our students to enjoy the rewards of all the hard work they have done in preparation,” said Pursell. “I think our audience will be mesmerized by our rendition of the piccolo solo everyone knows and loves.”
The Boston Brass will be performing with the Spirit of Northwestern Marching Band on Saturday, Sept. 23 in Melissa, Texas, at the Inaugural Melissa Marching Showcase at the brand-new Coach Kenny Deel Stadium. The event will feature 35 bands from across the state of Texas with the Spirit of Northwestern as the featured exhibition college band. Their performance with the Boston Brass will feature the music of Queen. A repeat of the Queen show will be performed on Saturday, Sept. 30 as the Demons take on Eastern Illinois at Turpin Stadium.
