Event details

• Tuesday, April 23, 2013, 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• Lied Center, 1600 Stewart Drive, KU campus, Lawrence
• Cost: $5 - $7
• Age limit: All ages

Fresh from their Carnegie Hall debut in late March, the KU Wind Ensemble will perform their last concert of the 2012-2013 season on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 7:30pm at the Lied Center of Kansas. Under the direction of conductor Paul W. Popiel and guest conductors Matthew O. Smith, associate director of bands at KU, and Chad Simons, associate director of bands at the University of New Mexico, the KU Wind Ensemble will perform Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture, Op. 96” and Lauridsen’s “O Magnum Mysterium,” among other works. Robert Walzel, clarinet, KU School of Music dean, will perform the world premiere of “Ravenkind,” composed by Forrest Pierce, associate professor of music composition at KU. “Ravenkind is what I’m calling a ‘Lyric Concerto,’ a concerto that attempts to sing rather than fight. It uses an unusually small instrumentation for a wind ensemble piece, and in some ways behaves like chamber music,” Pierce said. Since Reading Robert Aitken’s profound Zen Master Raven, I’ve been fascinated by the many cultures and works of literature in which ravens are less ravenous and more revelatory.” Tickets to this concert will be $7/general admission and $5/students and seniors and can be purchased at the Lied Center Box Office, 785-864-2787 or www.lied.ku.edu. About the KU Wind Ensemble Described by the New York Times as “one of America’s most esteemed concert bands,” the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble is the premier wind band at the University of Kansas and is conducted by Paul W. Popiel, director of bands. Their Carnegie Hall debut in 2013 was described by Feast of Music as “showing amazing chops in their transitions and an impressive range of dynamics” and by The New York Times as “performing with polish, assurance and copious spirit, eliciting a rousing ovation.” The University of Kansas Wind Ensemble enjoys a long history of excellence and musical leadership in the state of Kansas, across the nation and around the world. The Wind Ensemble performs diverse repertoire of the highest caliber from chamber works to large ensemble pieces and has a strong commitment to new music as well as the finest standard band repertoire. The band has a long tradition of excellence and performs regularly at national conventions, premieres commissions of new works, and hosts outstanding composers, conductors and soloists. The ensemble has performed with musicians such as Aaron Copland, Vincent Persichetti, Percy Grainger, Karel Husa, Michael Colgrass and Frank Ticheli. The KU Wind Ensemble is at the forefront of the Naxos Wind Band Classics series, having recorded four CDs on the Naxos label: Redline Tango, Wild Nights!, Derivations and Landscapes. For more information, contact the KU School of Music at 785-864-3436 or music.ku.edu.