Although spring showers may bring flowers, in Greencastle they seem to also bring an abundance of music. Before heading over to the fairgrounds Sunday for the Spring Fling Music Fest benefiting the Putnam County Non-Food Pantry, the DePauw University Band invites the community to its spring 2018 concert benefiting the Putnam County Emergency Food Pantry (PCEFP).

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A trio of pieces from different eras of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra highlight a collection of all-classic big band music to be performed on the DePauw University Jazz Ensemble concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 25 in the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium.

The program, which marks the final performance together by a pillar group of graduating seniors, also includes works by Stan Kenton and Duke Ellington. An arrangement from Nelson Riddle rounds out the repertoire.

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The DePauw University School of Music invites the community to come to Kresge Auditorium -- joyful and triumphant -- to hear its angelic ensembles herald in the season during its seventh annual Holiday Gala. This year’s festivities will be presented in two performances in DePauw's Green Center for the Performing Arts. Audiences can attend the full-length version of the popular program on Saturday, December 2 at 7 p.m., or choose to attend a shorter, one-hour concert for families and children on Sunday, December 3 at 3 p.m.

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Audiences can enjoy an uplifting array of works for symphonic band and wind ensemble at the DePauw University Band’s fall concert on Sunday, Nov. 12 at 3 p.m. in the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium — and give to a great community cause through its collection drive for the Putnam County Emergency Food Pantry.

Included on Sunday’s program will be Steven Bryant’s “Radiant Joy,” John Philip Sousa’s original suite, “Looking Upward” and “Resting in the Peace of His Hands,” a beautiful work by John Gibson, which takes inspiration from a sculptural relief by Käthe Kollwitz.

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This year marks the 70th anniversary of the United States Air Force, as well as the 75th anniversary of The United States Air Force Band. Next week, the United States Air Force Concert Band and Singing Sergeants, led by Commander and Conductor, Colonel Larry H. Lang, are heading to America’s heartland. The October tour is making stops in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and Indiana -- including a Monday, October 23 performance at the DePauw University.

Admission to the 7:30 p.m. concert by the Air Force’s premiere ensemble -- which will take place in the Green Center's Kresge Auditorium -- is free. Tickets, which are required, can be obtained online through the DePauw School of Music website.

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The University Band kicks off its 2017/18 season with a rousing concert performance in Kresge Auditorium. Included on the program will be a wonderful mix of new and standard works for symphonic band and wind ensemble: “Amazing Grace” by Frank Ticheli, “Transcendent Journey” by Rossano Galante, “Yankee Doodle Fantasie Humoreske” by David Wallis Reeves, and the world premiere of an exciting piece by South American composer Antonio Gervasoni, “Peruvian Fanfare No. 1” — inspired by two traditional dances from Peru, the marinera and the festejo.

As with all University Band performances, audience members are invited to bring a non-perishable food item that will be donated locally to the Putnam County Emergency Food Pantry. Redeem your food item for a free ticket to the performance!

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DePauw University School of Music faculty, staff and students will celebrate the start of a new year with a new addition to its seasonal programming. To the university’s annual Family Weekend festivities, the School of Music is introducing a Fall Gala.

Featuring performances by all of the university’s major student ensembles — band, choirs, jazz ensemble and orchestra — with works ranging from “Amazing Grace” to Leadbelly’s “Rock Island Line,” the gala-style concert will be presented Saturday, Sept. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium.

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For its final concert of the season, Sunday, April 30 at 3 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium, the DePauw University Band will present two distinguished soloists -- Master Sgt. Michael Mergen (United States Marine Corps, "The President's Own") and Paul Mergen, tuba (formerly, United States Marine Corps, "The President's Own") -- in the premiere of their commissioned work for trumpet, tuba and wind ensemble: "Hanging by a Thread" by American composer James M. Stephenson.

The program will also include a tribute to Donald H. White, former chairman of the DePauw School of Music theory and composition faculty, featuring his "Miniature Set for Band"; the magnificent "United Artists" fanfare by Kenneth Fuchs; "O Magnum Mysterium" by Morten Lauridsen; "Dance of the New World" by Dana Wilson; the first movement of Igor Stravinsky's classic Octet for chamber winds; and the Finale to Symphony No. 3 "Organ Symphony" by Camille Saint-Sa'ns.

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The DePauw University Band and DePauw Wind Ensemble, conducted by Craig Paré, will present “A Spring Bouquet” at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 3, featuring a potpourri of classic works for symphonic band and chamber winds. Familiar composer favorites Mozart, Bach, Sousa, and Milhaud are joined on this concert program by new friends Washburn, Hearshen, Hays, and Husa for an enjoyable afternoon of music for winds and percussion.

Audience members are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item that will be donated directly to the Putnam County Emergency Food Pantry following the concert. Bring an item and receive a free ticket to the performance.

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The DePauw University Band, directed by Professor Craig Paré, will commemorate the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor during its Sunday, Nov. 13 concert with a performance of Richard Rodgers’ stirring soundtrack to the early television series “Victory at Sea” that documented the battle of the Pacific during World War II.

The performance will be presented at 3 p.m. in the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium.

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When the DePauw Jazz Ensemble, led by DePauw University professor Steve Snyder, takes the stage for its first fall concert at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12 in the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium, debuting along with it will be a new octet.

Wednesday’s program is inspired by a gift from DePauw alumnus Anthony Minstein, a 1974 graduate, who recently provided the group with many classic arrangements for this unique, new eight-piece instrumentation.

“The DePauw Jazz Ensemble has grown musically and artistically every year,” said Snyder, director of jazz studies at DePauw, “prompting the addition of a new group formed from members of the larger band. It’s comprised of the lead players in each of the winds — Lead Trumpet, Lead Trombone, Lead Alto (doubling on bari sax in the octet) and Lead Tenor — along with the full rhythm section.

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The DePauw University Band, directed by Professor Craig Paré, will present its first concert of the season this Sunday—a mid-afternoon matinee on September 25 at 3 p.m. in the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium. For this performance, the band also invites audience members to bring one or more non-perishable food items for donation to the Putnam County Emergency Food Pantry. Any audience member presenting a food item at the box office will receive a free ticket to the University Band concert.

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The DePauw Jazz Ensemble will welcome the Greencastle Middle School Jazz Band to the Kresge Auditorium stage Wednesday, April 27 for the ensemble's last concert of the semester.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the DePauw University Green Center for the Performing Arts.

The 22-member GMS band -- led by volunteer DePauw student instructors Ciara McManus, Leland Nelson, Spencer Schillerstrom and Allan Whitehead -- will open the program with such standards as Henri Mancini's "The Pink Panther" and Neal Hefti's classic "Li'l Darlin'."

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The DePauw University Band, directed by Professor Craig Paré, will present its first concert of the year "Bach to the Future" on Sunday, October 4 — but at an unusual time. The Sunday matinee in Kresge Auditorium has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in order to allow interested audience members who would also enjoy attending the final performance of the musical production of Spamalot to do so at 3 p.m. in Moore Theatre, which is also located on the first floor of the Green Center for the Performing Arts.

In its opening program, the University Band celebrates the great variety and richness that has been the symphonic band’s legacy. From transcriptions such as Erik Leidzén's great setting of J. S. Bach's monumental Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, to C. L. Barnhouse’s classic “screamer” march, The Battle of Shiloh, that pays tribute to the veterans of the Civil War, to rich harmonies of 20th-century composer David Diamond, and further to today’s composers — Eric Whitacre, David Gillingham, Samuel Hazo, and Richard Saucedo — wind music’s history features an array of styles, colors and moods.

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The DePauw University School of Music presents one of the favorite events of the fall season, DePauwpalooza, this Friday, September 18, at 5:30 p.m. It features not only free music but complimentary pizza. At the School of Music, September is synonymous with DePauwpalooza. Held with the assistance of DePauw Student Government, the entire DePauw community is invited to join in the outdoor celebration in Bowman Park.

Six acts will be presented, with the University Band warming up the audience with Richard Saucedo’s “Wind Sprints,” a whirlwind of sound followed by the DePauw Chamber Singers, the cast from the department of theatre and communication's upcoming production of Spamalot, the University Chorus, and the Jazz Ensemble. As a prelude to its first fall concert, at 3 p.m. this Sunday (9/20) in Kresge Auditorium, the DePauw University Orchestra will close out the set with three pieces, including music by renowned film composer John Williams.

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Craig Paré, professor of music, will lead the DePauw University Band in its final concert of the year, “Make a Joyful Noise,” on Sunday, April 26, at 3 p.m. in the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium.

The band kicks off the afternoon with the great brass ensemble piece, Fanfare pour précéder "La Péri," by Paul Dukas, followed by DePauw faculty member James Beckel’s Make a Joyful Noise, the final two movements of Walter Hartley’s Concerto for 23 Winds and the classic Suite of Old American Dances by Robert Russell Bennett, “the dean of Broadway orchestrators.” The concert will also feature Desi by Michael Daugherty (a tribute to Cuban bandleader and television star, Desi Arnaz), and wraps up with an arrangement of the exciting Festive Overture by Dmitri Shostakovich.

“This is a nice ‘smorgasbord’ of works, with a variety of styles, all very lively and interesting in their own ways,” says Dr. Paré.

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The DePauw Jazz Ensemble welcomes renowned trombonist John Fedchock to the Kresge Auditorium stage for a performance featuring the Grammy-nominated artist's original compositions Tuesday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Green Center for the Performing Arts.

Fedchock has soloed with many of the world's most prominent jazz musicians including Woody Herman, Louis Bellson, T.S. Monk and Gerry Mulligan.

A distinguished, in-demand studio musician, he has also achieved critical acclaim for his work as a producer and arranger on several recordings, including "New York Big Band" and "On The Edge."

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Saxophone soloist Scotty Stepp will join the DePauw University Band, led by Craig Paré, in a performance of Evan Chambers’s blues-inspired Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Band this Sunday, March 8, at 3 p.m. in the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium.

The ensemble will open the concert with two English masterpieces -- Philip Sparke’s Overture for Woodwinds and Ralph Vaughan William’s Toccata Marziale.  Stepp, who directs the DePauw School of Music saxophone studio, will then take the stage to perform an untraditional, but exhilarating concerto by the up-and-coming American composer Evan Chambers.

“[Stepp] owns this piece as a player in blues and jazz,” says Dr. Paré. “To step back and hear him play is always impressive, but to collaborate with him is a great challenge not only for the students, but for me as well.”

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The DePauw Jazz Ensemble will present its first concert of the semester on Wednesday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Green Center's Kresge Auditorium. The ensemble will bring an extremely varied set to the stage, mixing funk, swing and hard bop, with classic jazz tunes and less familiar works, including some great charts by Don Menza, Bob Mintzer, Paul McKee, Eric Richards, Frank Mantooth and Toshiko Akiyoshi.

The jazz ensemble swings just as hard as last semester, but with an added flair: new soloists. Saxophonists Tyler Schaefers and Aubrey Ault and trumpet player Laura Egyed will be adding their individual flavor to the group’s stylings this spring.

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Members of the community have two opportunities to hear the music of DePauw School of Music professor of trombone James A. Beckel Jr., when the University Band and the University Orchestra feature music composed by Beckel in back-to-back concerts. The two performances -- in the Green Center for the Performing Arts' Kresge Auditorium -- will be given on Sunday, November 23 at 3 p.m. and on Monday, November 24 at 7:30 p.m.

This weekend, when Craig Paré leads the University Band in the ensemble’s last concert of the fall semester, Robert Danforth, DePauw music professor and principal horn of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, will be the featured soloist on Beckel’s Pulitzer Prize–nominated concerto for horn, The Glass Bead Game. The critically acclaimed work, now considered a part of the standard horn repertoire, is loosely based on the Herman Hesse novel of the same name. Samuel Barber’s Commando March, his first piece for band, is also on Sunday’s program, along with Ron Nelson’s Lauds and Frank Ticheli’s arrangement of “Amazing Grace.” Bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the Putnam County Emergency Food Pantry and redeem that item for a free concert ticket.

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Jazz lovers are invited to be on hand as Steven Snyder makes his debut as the new director of the DePauw Jazz Ensemble in its first concert of the season on Tuesday, October 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium.

Snyder, who comes to DePauw University School of Music from his previous teaching post at Morehead State, says he is thrilled to be at DePauw and is excited about the band’s first concert. “I absolutely love it here.  In addition to teaching the Jazz Ensemble, which is our big band, I have three combos, which vary in size from five to eight players. I’m teaching jazz history class, and I am working with Jazz at the Duck, booking performers and playing there quite often.”

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The adventuresome program will include two movements from Mozart’s masterpiece for winds, Serenade No. 10 in B-flat Major, K. 370/361a, “Gran Partita”; Tramonto, a romanza for cello and wind ensemble by Luis Serrano Alarcón; Avelynn’s Lullaby by Joel Puckett; and the final movement, Toccata, of Joseph Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante, arranged for organ and symphonic band by DePauw professor of trombone, James Beckel.

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The DePauw University Band welcomes School of Music faculty member Randy Salman as guest clarinet soloist this Sunday, when it performs Artie Shaw’s masterful Concerto for Clarinet. The concert, conducted by director of bands Craig Paré, will begin at 3 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium at the Green Center for the Performing Arts on DePauw's campus.

“Prof. Salman is always a welcome soloist with University Bands,” says Dr. Paré of his colleague, whose guest performances with the DePauw Band include a recording of Michael Daugherty’s Brooklyn Bridge, the title work on the student ensemble’s sixth compact disc. “Each opportunity to work with Randy is a pleasure for me and a treat for our students to accompany him; his artistry is a model for the University Band musicians.”

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