Wind Ensemble group picture

Press Release for Pacific Lutheran University Wind Ensemble Concert in Nashville on Jan. 23rd, 2015

Friday, January 23, 2015 • 7:00pm

First Lutheran Church
113 Eighth Ave South
Nashville, Tennessee

The Pacific Lutheran University School of Arts and Communication and the Department of Music are pleased to announce that their University Wind Ensemble will appear in concert at First Lutheran Church, January 23rd at 7:00pm.

The Ensemble consists of 47 very talented musicians from a variety of academic disciplines. They will play from an exciting repertoire, including For Those Who Wait, a commissioned work by our University composer, Dr. Gregory Youtz,that they will premier on the tour.

The commissioning of this work involved a very unique experiment. It is not uncommon to develop a consortium of groups to contract a composer.  What is unique about this one is that due to Greg’s national reputation and The PLU Wind Ensemble’s reputation for commissioning and performing new works, a huge list of schools from Large Universities to local High Schools contributed because it was priced to buy in at an amount that is essentially the same as buying a mass produced work from a publisher.

The stirring result is a piece that responds to the reality of numerous members of our armed
services returning home wounded, physically or psychologically, after multiple extended tours of duty in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Much attention has been devoted, quite appropriately, to the heroism of those veterans. Far less attention has been paid to those who wait at home, constantly preoccupied by anxiety about loved ones. This piece attempts to capture the experiences of those in this position of waiting- from the times when anxiety is just a general background worry, only half conscious in the mind, to those dark nights of the soul when fear overtakes everything. And through it all, there is nothing to do but wait and hope.

The conductor, Dr. Edwin Powell, is well known in Tennessee, having taught conducting courses and music education methods at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he was Assistant Director of Bands responsible for the Symphonic Band and the 350 member Pride of the Southland Marching Band.

For more information on the the concert visit the website: :https://www.plu.edu/wind-ensemble/.