Ridge High Spring Band Concert

The Ridge High Music Department presents its Spring Band Concert on Thursday, June 7 at the Ridge Performing Arts Center.  The 7 pm concert will feature the school’s Percussion Ensemble, Concert Band and Wind Ensemble led by conductor Daniel Zugale.  Admission is free, but donations are gladly accepted.

The Percussion Ensemble will perform two contemporary works.  Compound Autonomy composed in 2010 by percussionist Jim Casella is a challenging piece written in the meter of 7/8.  Streets of Ankara was composed by Chris Books as a musical depiction of the soundscapes found on the streets of Ankara, Turkey.

The Concert Band will perform four works.  Overture for Winds is the most popular work by Florida State University composer Charles Carter.  The Olympics: A Centennial Celebration is John Moss’ musical montage that captures several of the signature themes performed at the Olympics, including “Bugler's Dream”, “Olympic Fanfare and Theme”, “The Olympic Spirit”, and “Summon the Heroes”.  Prairiesong by Carl Strommen portrays the grassy open fields and idiosyncrasies of life on the open prairie, including the sounds various farm animals and the clip-clop of horse hooves.  Concluding the Concert Band’s portion of the concert is Cincinnatus by H.A. Vander
Cook, composed in the late 1890’s when Vander Cook was bandmaster of the J.H. LaPearl Circus. 

The Ridge Wind Ensemble will also perform four works.  Puszta is a suite of four gypsy dances written in 1987 by Belgium composer Jan Van Der Roost.  Puszta is the home of the celebrated Lipizzaner stallions. Themes from Green
Bushes by composer Percy Grainger is beautiful work based on a popular English folksong.  Vesuvius, composed in 1999 by American composer Frank Ticheli, is a wild and passionate work.  Ticheli describes the piece as “a dance from the final days of the doomed city of Pompeii, destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79.”  The popular march, His Honor, composed in 1933 by Henry Fillmore concludes the Wind Ensemble portion of the concert.

The combined bands conclude the Ridge Spring Band concert with Carmen Dragon’s stirring arrangement of Samuel Agustus Ward’s America the Beautiful. 

Twenty Seven Ridge High seniors will be performing for the final time with the bands: Colin Blaber, Juliana Bottini, Patrick Burns, Ryan Calderone, Kristina Cheung, Adam Connolly, Nicole Gaziano, Daniel Hallak, Bradley Hutton, Erin Ji, Ron Kieftenbeld, Felix Labelle, Joshua Lefler, Benjamin Mason, Jacob Massa, Connor McGeough, Song Park, Victoria Prater, Ryan Richards, Alan Sang, Madeline Schwartz, Mausum Shah, Michael Shaw, Emily Sisto, Kaitlyn Vermillion, Matthew Von Bargen and Peter Woo.

Enjoy an evening of fine music with these Ridge ensembles!