Photo courtesy of Mike Taylor and Mt. SAC Wind Ensemble
Appealing to many different musical appetites, the fall concert season at Mt. SAC offers a wide variety of musical snacks, from Mozart and contemporary classical, to big brass and the theme from E.T.
The music department’s fall season kicks off with a student showcase Oct. 22 at 8 p.m., in the Feddersen Recital Hall. Admission is free and is open to the public. Kevin Wiley, staff accompanist, said, “The point is to have a venue for our most talented students to perform solo for an audience.”
Classical and Jazz genres will be featured. “We generally do a showcase once a year, we’re doing two this year but we like being able to showcase talented hardworking students that are going to become music majors at a four year school,” Wiley said.
Student performances to look forward to include an aria from a Mozart opera and a Chopin etude. The intimate recital setting will also feature a jazz combination and vocal jazz. There will also be several instrumental solos ranging from piano, guitar and trombone as well as some original student compositions.
“It’s always important to support local music performances, and especially in this case, these are students that are mostly going to be music majors, these are students that are studying privately and they are some of our best students,” Wiley said.
Also on the fall concert calendar, the Mt. SAC Bands and Pacific Brass Ensemble will perform Oct. 26 at 8 p.m., in the Sophie B. Clarke Theater. Admission is $6 for students and is open to the public.
The Wind Ensemble, an elite instrumental group of 45 students highlights the top instrumentalists in the overall program. Together with the Symphonic Winds, a 70-student ensemble, student musicians will perform stylishly scored classical and contemporary masterpieces.
Dustin Barr, director of bands, said, “As concert goers, students will experience styles of music that are vastly different from anything that they may typically recognize as classical music.” Barr encouraged music lovers of all ages and musical tastes to come see the show.
“When someone mentions classical music it brings about certain ideas and concepts about what they’re really going to hear,” Barr added. Barr has worked to arrange classical music in a way that he said he believes will translate to broader audiences.
“Most of the music that we perform is very contemporary and cutting edge and is actually composed by composers that are living and writing today and it sounds very different from Mozart and Beethoven and any preconceived illusions that people may have about classical music,” Barr said.
For the second half of the Mt. SAC bands concert, the Pacific Brass Ensemble, a large brass and percussion group will perform.
The Pacific Brass is an ensemble that specializes in performing music from film scores. Steven Mahpar, conductor of the Pacific Brass, said, “Our performance will be a celebration of film music. I think a lot of times when audiences watch a movie they aren’t really aware of a lot of music they’re hearing because they’re distracted by visuals, dialogue, and what’s happening with the story. This is chance for the audience to just be able to listen to the music by itself.”
Music from the new Captain America movie and themes from E.T., Lord of the Rings and Superman will be featured.
“I think that the audience will not only appreciate the film music just by itself but also the level of musicianship of the players and the difficulty in the parts that they’re playing,” Mahpar said.
For a listing of the music departments full concert schedule go to the online ticket box at https://tickets.mtsac.edu.
- Sonia Ross
Copy Editor
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