WT Concert, Symphonic Bands to Close Out Semester with Free Concert Eureka Graduate To Play Saxophone With Concert Band
CANYON, Texas — Compositions by big names of the past and present will be performed at the final concerts of the year by West Texas A&M University’s (WT) Concert and Symphonic bands. The Concert Band will perform at 6 p.m. May 7, followed by the Symphonic Band at 8 p.m., both in Mary Moody Northen Recital Hall on WT’s Canyon campus. Caydee Burden, a 2022 graduate of Eureka Junior/Senior High School, will be playing the saxophone with the concert band. Burden is a junior at WT, majoring in Music Therapy. She also participates in WT’s marching band and is the Music Therapy President. Burden is the daughter of Eric and Elizabeth Burden of rural Eureka.
The Concert Band’s repertoire will include “Sevens” by Samuel Hazo, “Evergreen” by Viet Cuong, Danzón No. 2 by Arturo Márquez and arranged by Oliver Nickel, “Warsaw Concerto” by Richard Addinsell; and the finale from Symphony No. 1 by Vasili Kalinnikov.
Norrin Hodgson, a graduate student in music from Odessa, will conduct “Sevens,” and Chema Garcia, a graduate student in music from Wellington, will conduct Danzón No. 2. Piper Fowler, a senior music major from Amarillo, is piano soloist for Warsaw Concerto. “Preparing for this concert has been a fabulous combination of hard work and pure joy,” said Russ Teweleit, professor of music education. “This group is among the best I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with, and this concert will be an absolute treat for the audience. It is full of a wide variety of styles of band music and orchestral transcriptions spanning over 125 years, including ‘Evergreen’ by one of the top composers for band today, Viet Cuong. The work was premiered in 2024 and is unlike any other band piece I’ve ever heard.”
Admission is free and the concerts will be streamed on the WT School of Music’s Facebook page. For information, call 806-6512840.
Fostering an appreciation of the arts is a key component of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.
About West Texas A&M University WT, a Regional Re-search University, is redefining excellence in Canyon, Texas, on a 342acre residential campus, as well as the Harrington Academic Hall WTAMU Amarillo Center in downtown Amarillo. Established in 1910, the University has been part of The Texas A&M University System since 1990. WT, a Hispanic Serving Institution since 2016, boasts an enrollment of more than 9,000 and offers 66 undergraduate degree programs, including eight associate degrees; and 44 graduate degrees, including an integrated bachelor’s and master’s degree, a specialist degree and two doctoral degrees.
(Courtesy photo)
