UMaine Symphonic Band to Tour Down East, Northern Maine

The 50-member University of Maine Symphonic Band, conducted by Christopher White, will tour Down East and northern Maine April 3–6 with free public performances from Machias to Madawaska at school assemblies during the day and evening community concerts.

The 7 p.m. concerts are April 3 with the Machias Town Band at the University of Maine at Machias, April 4 at Houlton High School and April 5 at Madawaska High School. There also will be a 1 p.m. concert April 6 with the University of Maine Presque Isle Community Band on campus in Presque Isle.

The program includes works by Clifton Williams, R. Vaughan Williams, Dana Wilson, Johan Halvorsen, Frank Ticheli and R.B. Hall.

Among the performance highlights: Soloist Blake Ford, a senior music education major from Princeton, Maine, will play electric guitar in a unique piece, “Chaos Theory 3.0 Concerto for Electric Guitar and Wind Orchestra” by composer, sound designer and guitarist Jim Bonney.

Jason Priest of Old Town, Maine, winner of the Symphonic Band solo competition in December and a UMaine senior majoring in music performance and music education, will solo on the euphonium in a piece, “Rhapsody for Euphonium and Concert Band” by James Curnow.

Faculty member Dan Barrett will perform a featured trombone solo in “Variations on Barnacle Bill The Sailor” by Steven Frank, who teaches low brass at UMaine.

The Symphonic Band’s spring concert, featuring selections from the tour, will be 7:30 p.m. April 18 at in the Collins Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12; free with a student MaineCard, and can be purchased at the Collins Center for the Arts box office or at the door before the performance. For more information or to request disability accommodations, call the Collins Center for the Arts, 207.581.1755.