Wind Symphony Concert Feb. 17 with New Faculty Saxophonist

Composers born in the U.S., Germany, Greece, Spain and France will be represented in the 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17, concert by Illinois State University’s Wind Symphony under the direction of Steve Steele.  New saxophone faculty member Paul Nolen will be the faculty soloist performing Ingolf Dahl’s Concerto for alto saxophone and wind orchestra.

The concert will take place in the Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall.  Tickets are $6 for the general public, $5 for faculty-staff and $4 for students and senior citizens, and are available at the Center for the Performing Arts box office from noon to 5 p.m. or at 438-2535.

The Wind Symphony will open the concert performing Paul Creston’s Celebration Overture, a composition commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association and premiered at their annual conference in 1955.  Creston (who was born Giuseppi Guttoveggio in New York City) wrote for nearly every musical genre, including film and television, and won many awards and prizes.

Saxophonist Nolen and the Wind Symphony will perform the Dahl piece, written in 1949.  Dahl, who was born in Germany, immigrated to the United States and was a member of the University of Southern California music faculty. 

Paul Nolen has appeared throughout North America as a solo recitalist, chamber musician, jazz performer and contemporary improviser.  He received first prize in the 2003 MTNA National Chamber Music Competition, and was a semi-finalist in the 2004 Concert Artist Guild International Competition in New York City.  Nolen former taught at the University of Central Arkansas and the University of Windsor-Ontario.  He  holds his D.M.A. and M.M. degrees from Michigan State University and his B.M. from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

The Aegean Festival Overture by Greek-born Andreas Makris will be next on the program.  Written on a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aegean Festival Overture was premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., and became a featured piece on Air Force Band tours.

The Wind Symphony will perform Joaquin Rodrigo’s Adagio for winds, written in 1962 on commission by the American Wind Symphony.  Rodrigo was born in Spain and went blind at age 3, but studied piano and violin at a school for the blind from the time he was 8.  He wrote his first compositions in 1923 and during his life received several awards and decorations for his music. 

French composer Florent Schmitt’s “Dionysiques” will close the concert.  It is one of only two major works Schmitt wrote for wind band and percussion.  He composed works using most of the major musical forms, except opera.  He was one of the most performed of French composers between World Wars I and II.