UMaine Symphonic Band, South Portland High Musicians to Play Merrill Hall April 10
Contact: Karen Cole, 581-4704; George Manlove, 581-3756
PORTLAND –The University of Maine Symphonic Band and South Portland High School Wind Ensemble are teaming up for an evening of music spanning three centuries on Thursday, April 10, at Merrill Hall Auditorium in Portland.
The performance is at 7:30 p.m. There is no admission charge, although donations will be accepted.
The first half of the program begins with the South Portland High School Wind Ensemble. Works include: a dance-fusion piece titled “Bandancing,” by Jack Stamp, a former South Portland Wind Ensemble conductor during a residency in 2002; “Ever Braver, Ever Stronger — An American Elegy,” a piece inspired by events of 911 and the post-911 words of encouragement by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; “The Inferno,” a piece based on the 12th-century epic poem, “Divine Comedy’ by Dante; and “Sinfonia Voci,” (“I Sing the Mighty Power of God”), a piece commissioned by the Plainfield (Indiana) High School Band Boosters, based on a 16th-century hymn and text and dedicated to the 29 people who lost their lives and 350 people injured in a tornado there in 1990.
The University of Maine Symphonic Band will perform after the intermission, with “Call to the Mall”; “Alleluia! Laudamus Te”; “Meditation from ‘Thais'”; “Metroplex”; “A Movement for Rosa”; “Variations on a Maine Theme,” by Craig Skeffington; “Pagan Dances”; and “Finale from Symphony No. 1 in G Minor.”
The Symphonic Band is composed of 60 or more aspiring instrumentalists chosen from students of varied academic disciplines; membership in the organization is determined by audition. The Symphonic Band performs several times each year on campus and throughout New England.
Conductors include School of Performing Arts faculty members Curvin Farnham, director of bands, Christopher White, director of sports bands; and UMaine alum Craig Skeffington, a professional musician, composer and conductor of the South Portland High School Band; and Brady Harris, a former UMaine student and current Brewer High School music teacher who conducts the Brewer High’s concert band and jazz, woodwind, brass and other ensembles.
Harris, a graduate student in the UMaine Master of Music Conducting program, also serves as the bandmaster and commander of the 195th Army Band of the Maine Army National Guard. He has been a guest conductor and clinician for more than 15 years and performs regularly as a guitarist with the progressive jazz group Aurora Jazz Project, as a trombonist in several musical organizations and is an active composer and arranger.
Skeffington, who earned a bachelor’s degree in music in 1992 at UMaine, was the 2003 MMEA Teacher of the Year and recently by the national trade magazine “School Band and Orchestra” as one of “50 Directors Who Make a Difference.” His wind and concert groups at South Portland High School have achieved distinction at the local, regional and national levels, consistently receiving gold recognition at evaluated events.
Skeffington has been an active New England composer and arranger for the past two decades and is an instructor in jazz arranging and applied writing at the University of Southern Maine. As a professional trumpet player, he has played with well-known stars, including Barry Manilow, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Natalie Cole, The New York Voices and he toured with the Artie Shaw Orchestra. Locally, he works with the Seacoast Big Band and the Portland Jazz Orchestra.
Farnham is the coordinator of the School of Performing Arts and teaches courses in instrumental music education and teaches conducting at the graduate level. Farnham appears throughout the United States and Canada as a clinician, adjudicator and conductor, and has been a guest conductor at several national and international festivals.
UMaine sports bands under Christopher White’s direction have performed throughout New England and across the nation, including Louisiana, California and Virginia. White also teaches percussion methods, marching techniques, conducting and undergraduate studio percussion. He has played percussion with the Maine State Ballet Orchestra, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and has performed at P.A.S.I.C. with the UMaine Percussion Ensemble.
For additional details, call Karen Cole at (207) 949-2342.