Hartwick College Wind Ensemble to Play Carnegie Hall

On Monday, April 9, the Hartwick College Wind Ensemble will perform at New York’s legendary Carnegie Hall, as part an evening with the Masterwork Festival Chorus and the National Festival Chorus. The ensemble will play selections by Leonard Bernstein, Jonathan Newman, Michael Markowski, Ethan Cypress, and Chen Yi. The performance begins at 8 p.m. and will be held on Perlman Stage in Stern Auditorium.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time that any group from Hartwick has performed at Carnegie Hall,” said Assistant Professor of Music Andrew Pease, who will conduct most of the ensemble’s performance.

The group is comprised of 40 members, including 24 Hartwick students (eight of whom are instrumental music majors), six Hartwick alumni, seven Hartwick faculty, two community members, and one SUNY-Oneonta student.

The ensemble will present five selections during the evening. The first is “Hill of Dreams” by Cypress, an Oneonta native who was the Hartwick Music Department’s intern last year, and wrote this piece specifically for the group; this performance will be its world premiere. Second is “Spring Festival” by Chen Yi, which evokes the sounds of a Chinese New Year celebration. Next is “Moon by Night” by Jonathan Newman, which will be led by guest conductor Jason Noble, director of bands at Scarsdale High School and Columbia University.

In tribute to Leonard Bernstein, whose centennial is being celebrated around the world this year, the ensemble will perform three of the “Four Dances from West Side Story”: Mambo, Cha-cha, and Cool (Fugue). The performance will conclude with “Reckoning” by composer Michael Markowski, who will also come to the Hartwick campus prior to the performance to prepare the ensemble on his work.

“We’ve worked on this music since the first week of classes, and have made tremendous progress,” said Pease. “We had a chance to preview most of it during our March 15 concert on campus, and we’re in the midst of a five-rehearsal period between that and the Carnegie Hall show, during which we’ll have the chance to polish and refine it all even further.”

Before the performance, a Hartwick College alumni mixer will take also place at Angelo’s Coal Oven Pizza on W. 57th St. Concert tickets are not required to attend, but RSVPs are suggested and can be made at the Hartwick alumni webpage.

Along with the Hartwick ensemble, the concert will feature the Masterwork Festival Chorus performing Richard Burchard’s “Seven Last Words of Christ,” as well as soloists from the New York City Chamber Orchestra and conductor Greg Fuller. The program will also include Z. Randall Stroope’s “Dies Irae,” Vaughan Williams’s “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing,” and more performed by the National Festival Chorus conducted by Stroope.

Tickets for the performance are available through Carnegie Hall.

For more information on the evening, visit Carnegie Hall’s website or contact Pease at peased@hartwick.edu or (607) 431-4582.