Wind Symphony concert to showcase folk tunes from around the world

Folk tunes from around the world will be performed at a special Parents Weekend concert in the Salomon Center for Teaching at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16. The concert will feature compositions inspired by songs from Sweden, Korea, Great Britain and other countries.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Brown University Wind Symphony will perform folk tunes from around the world at a special Parents Weekend concert in the Salomon Center for Teaching at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16, 1999.

Under the baton of Matthew McGarrell, the concert will feature a menagerie of folk tunes arranged for winds, among them works by Ralph Vaughn-Williams, Bela Bartók and Erik Leidzen.

The ensemble will perform four compositions written by Bartók that were inspired by children’s songs he heard during travels throughout Hungary. “His original compositions were arranged as piano exercises,” says McGarrell, “but the concert will showcase wind symphony adaptations.”

The Wind Symphony also will showcase Variations of Korean Folk Songs composed by John Barnes Chance, and the First Swedish Rhapsody written by Erik Leidzen.

In addition, the concert will feature two Portuguese marches, says McGarrell. “The first, Minho E Galizia, is a composition whose name comes from two neighboring provinces in Portugal by Miguel Oliveira, and the second is A Voz Da Victory (The Voice of Victory) written by Julio V. Rodrigues, a musicians who, for many years, led bands in the New Bedford, Mass., area.”

The symphony’s percussion section will be showcased when it performs Cesar Chavez’s Tocatta, conducted by Kevin Plouffe, band director at Woonsocket High School.

Because it will be Parents Weekend, John Harness, the father of first horn player Cayce Harness ’02, will lead the ensemble in the playing of The English Folk Song Suite by Vaughn-Williams. Harness is a high school and community band conductor from Brownsville, Texas.

Admission to the concert is $5 and is open to the public. The Solomon Center for Teaching is located on The College Green.

######