The Annual Gustavus Honor Band Festival and Concert at Gustavus Adolphus College will celebrate its 26th year on Nov. 2-3, with the arrival of more than 230 high school musicians from 58 high schools in Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin and South Dakota. With the increased attendance, the High School Honor Band will split to create two concert bands with more than 100 members each and one jazz band and will present their festival concert at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 3 in Christ Chapel. At the festival concert, the bands will be directed by conductors James Patrick Miller, Heidi Johanna Miller, Karrin Meffert-Nelson, and Dave Stamps. They will be joined by the Gustavus Wind Orchestra. The festival concert is free and open to the public.
The Festival, one of the Music Department’s favorite annual traditions, is usually a wind ensemble of approximately 100 high school students who are nominated by their directors and chosen to participate in this prestigious learning experience. To celebrate the 26th year, the Gustavus Honor Band Festival has added a new component to this year’s festival. A high school honor jazz ensemble has been assembled and will be coached and directed by the Director of Jazz Studies at Gustavus, Dave Stamps. Because of the increased popularity and the additional nominations this year, the Gustavus Honor Band will include two wind ensembles, the Bjorling Winds and the Chapel Winds.
These students, who come from all over Minnesota and surrounding states, will spend two days rehearsing together, under the direction of Drs. Miller, Miller, Meffert-Nelson and Stamps. The Festival and Concert is a fantastic learning experience for these young musicians. Its primary goal is in the “pursuit of musical excellence,” as is stated in the call for student nominations. The festival also serves to introduce students to a learning community at Gustavus. The students, both at the high school and undergraduate level, find the experience enjoyable, memorable, and life-changing.
The program by the Chapel Winds will include Frank Ticheli’s Nitro, Percy Grainger’s The Sussex Mummers Christmas Carol, Maslanka’s Give Us This Day, and Sousa’s The Washington Post March. The Bjorling Winds will present Wilson’s Shortcut Home, Grainger’s Children’s March, the Himes’ edition of the traditional hymn, Amazing Grace and Karl King’sThe Purple Pageant march.
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