The Andrews University Wind Symphony’s concert, originally set to take place on Saturday, Jan. 31 in the Howard Performing Arts Center (HPAC), has ultimately been canceled due to winter weather, despite efforts to perform as scheduled. Though the concert will not take place, the preparation and commitment of the ensemble amidst setbacks show their resilience and dedication to bring music to the community.
The theme of this concert would have been “A British Winter’s Night,” which was both a practical and a stylistic choice. Wind Symphony Director Denisse Santos-Gooden explained that a large majority of the music that is written for brass bands is British, because “that’s where brass bands really originated from.” Thus, British music was a logical choice, as the Southwestern Michigan College (SMC) Brass Band was originally set to perform the first half of the concert. Even after plans changed, however, the Wind Symphony stuck with the theme because brass music is very uplifting and cheerful, perfect for a cold winter day. Santos-Gooden stated, on behalf of the Wind Symphony, that her hope was to bring light to the audience through the music.
This concert would have been one where the audience could really hear the progress the Wind Symphony has made this year. There have been a lot of tough decisions regarding this concert and the weather. The SMC Brass Band’s cancellation was very last minute; the Wind Symphony received word just last week. The SMC Brass Band’s participation in the Wind Symphony’s Winter Concert has been an annual tradition between the two ensembles. Due to an already small number of rehearsals being cancelled due to the winter weather, SMC was left with only the dress rehearsal to prepare their entire part of the program, and therefore decided it would be better to back out. This left the Wind Symphony in a pinch, however. After much deliberation, they decided to move forward with the concert, adding a couple more pieces to their part of the program and inviting the Andrews Brass, formed by students Luke Mularczyk (trumpet), Valeria Trevino (trumpet), Seth Brouhard (French horn), Josh VanDenburgh (French horn), Matthew Bourne (trombone), Paul Papaioannou (trombone), and Oscar Flores (tuba), to perform as well.
However, due to the continuing bad weather on Monday, Jan. 26, the Wind Symphony had to cancel their rehearsal for that evening. This left them with only one rehearsal to polish off their work and to learn the new pieces that they had added on since the cancellation of SMC’s participation in the concert. Santos-Gooden ultimately made the decision to cancel the concert as a whole. She stated that “This is the third year I’ve been doing this job and the second year that we’ve had to consider cancelling because of these issues.” For next year, the Wind Symphony is looking to move this concert to later on in February, to allow more time for rehearsals and ideally better weather.
Unfortunately, the community will not get to enjoy the Wind Symphony’s beautiful music this upcoming Saturday night. However, they have many more concerts to look forward to, including their vespers program, which will take place on March 6, at 7:30 p.m.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.