DANA CONCERT BAND TO OFFER SPRING CONCERT, MAY 13

Program is a preview of the band's upcoming tour performances

The Dana College Concert Band will present the final concert of the 2003-2004 school year on Thursday, May 13, at 7:30 PM in the Lauritzen Theater. Featured soloist for the program will be senior trombonist Lars Madsen performing Alexandre Guilmant’s Morceau Symphonique. This concert piece, written in 1902, is a great favorite of trombonists worldwide, and contains lyrical melodies and impressive technical passages. Lars Madsen is an Integrated Studies major and a Computer Science minor. He has studied trombone at Dana with Dr. William Hall for four years.

Prior to enrolling at Dana Lars was a member of the Illinois champion Libertyville High School Band, the Falmouth, Maine High School Band, the Portland Youth Wind Ensemble, and the Maine All-State Band in 1999 and 2000. Among the awards Lars has won are several Superior ratings in Solo and Ensemble competitions, the coveted John Philip Sousa Award, and was selected Principal Trombone of the 2003 Nebraska Intercollegiate Band. Lars parents are Gary and Diane (Larsen) Madsen of Verona, Wisconsin, both Dana alumni, and his grandparents are Phil and Florence Madsen of Blair.

In addition to Madsen, the Dana Band’s program will feature a student xylophone trio of Kelli Inman, Manda Haas, and Kirk Schjodt performing Norman Leyden’s Serenade for a Picket Fence. This sparkling number is reminiscent of the many xylophone soloists of the vaudeville era.

Other selections on the Band’s concert include Louis Ganne’s famous French military march Father Victory, Ralph Vaughan Williams standard repertoire work English Folk Song Suite, and Louisiana native Frank Ticheli’s Cajun Folk Song Suite. Works with a distinctly Lutheran character are William Latham’s setting of three German chorale’s Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light, O Sacred head Now Wounded, and Now Thank We All Our God, and Psalm 46 based on Luther’s hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God by Minnesotan John Zdechlik.

Following the end of the school year the Dana Concert Band will tour Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota playing concerts in schools and churches, with time off for sightseeing in Chicago. The public is cordially invited to attend the free concert on May 13 and hear the band’s tour program.

Dana College is a place where all students actively participate. They make things happen — in their own lives and in the lives of others. Through a highly supportive faculty and campus community, Dana students develop interpersonal skills, leadership abilities, and other important values and knowledge as they make choices about their future. Dana’s outstanding academic programs in business, education, music and social work, among others, ensure that students have the knowledge, skills and experience necessary to pursue challenging careers or placement in graduate school.

Dana College is a private, liberal arts institution in Blair, Neb. To learn more, visit www.dana.edu.

Dana College: Develop talents, Take charge, Build a future — We’re with you all the way.

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For more information contact:

Sarah Cavanah
Communications Coordinator
Dana College
(402) 426-7216
scavanah@dana.edu