SU Concert Band Performs American Music Tuesday, May 9

SALISBURY, MD---The Salisbury University Concert Band premieres “Romanza,” a concerto by local musician and composer Otello Meucci, as part of SU’s “Made in America” spring music festival 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 9, in Holloway Hall Auditorium.

Conducted by Lee Knier, the concert focuses on American music and style that helped influence those songs. Featuring everything from George Gershwin (“Second Prelude” from Three Preludes for Piano) and opera (Jacques Offenbach’s “Overture” from Orpheus in the Underworld) to movie music (Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg’s “Overture on Themes from The Wizard of Oz”) and a Dixieland medley, Knier said he hoped the selections offered something to suit most musical tastes.

“Our band concert program is very similar to a Sousa concert in that it consists of American band music along with various soloists, an overture and a Sousa march (‘The Stars and Stripes Forver’),” he said. “Even John Philip Sousa included some European opera overtures and soloists in his concert programs.”

According to Knier, pieces such as Orpheus and Herman Bellstedt’s “La Mandolinata” incorporate international themes found in American music. Others, such as Three Preludes, combine styles inherent to the country itself.

“George Gershwin occupies a unique place in the history of American music,” Knier said. “A gifted writer of popular songs, musical comedies, a folk opera and other art music, he was able to combine the styles of Tin Pan Alley and Carnegie Hall.” Gershwin debuted Three Preludes in New York in 1926.

Sponsored by the Department of Music, the concert is free and the public is invited. For more information call 410-543-6385 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu. "