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Performances |
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Daniel
Binelli with Wind Ensemble, April 21, North Carolina, USA |
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BOONE—William
A. Gora, director of bands at Appalachian State University, conducts the Wind Ensemble in
an April 21 concert in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. The program begins
at 8 p.m. Admission is free.
The concert will be the last Gora will conduct as a member of the Mariam Cannon Hayes
School of Music. He is retiring in July after a 30-year career at the university.
The concert opens with the premiere of “Spanish Concertina for Bandoneon and
Wind-Ensemble” by Edmund Barton Bullock. The piece is is a transcription of
Bullock’s “Three Tango Fantasies for Piano Solo.”
Joining the Wind Ensemble for the premiere is guest artist Daniel Binelli who plays the
bandoneón. Binelli is an internationally renowned master of the instrument, which is
similar to an accordion or concertina.
Bullock composed the work in memory of Dr. Alfred Reed, whose musical friendship inspired
the idea for the composition. Bullock discovered the tango tradition while living in
Toulouse, France. The composition is dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Edward E. Hood Jr. and
Appalachian’s Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock.
The Wind Ensemble also will perform James Barnes’ “Third Symphony, Op. 89,”
which was commissioned by the United States Air Force Band. The piece evokes the dark
despair experienced by the composer following the death of his infant daughter, and the
elation experienced following the birth of his son.
The evening ends with “Irish Tune from County Derry” by the popular
Australian-born composer Percy Aldridge Grainger. He became an American citizen after
moving to the United States in 1914 and serving in the U.S. Army. Written for the Army
Band at Governor’s Island, N.Y., it is considered a masterpiece of harmonization and
orchestration.
In addition to directing Appalachian’s band program, Gora was director of Cannon
Music Camp, one of the nation’s most successful summer music programs, from 1982
through 1994.
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