The Trinity Western University Concert Band and Orchestra perform a lively assortment of dance-themed works at Celebrating Dance, a pair of concerts in Langley and Abbotsford on November 27 and 28.
“So you think you’ve heard dance?” jokes Allan Thorpe, DMA, Chair of Music at TWU’s School of the Arts, Media + Culture (SAMC). “Our fall program brings together an impressive array of classic pieces for band and orchestra – favourites, really – and the theme for this concert is dance. Some are more celebratory, others like the suite from Peer Gyntare more energetic and suspenseful. Khachaturian’s ‘Sabre Dance’ is a recognizable tune that will get anyone’s feet tapping.”
Along with “Sabre Dance,” the SAMC Concert Band will perform Armenian Dances by Alfred Reed – an intriguing, out-of-the-ordinary mixture of metres and pulses. The SAMC Orchestra will perform music from the adventure story of Peer Gynt as well as Edvard Grieg’s Symphonic Dances. The latter is a multi-movement setting of Norwegian folk tunes, all traditionally played outdoors on fiddles as dancers gathered en masse.
Both ensembles feature TWU students and alumni, with other talented musicians from across the Fraser Valley. The SAMC Orchestra is conducted by Jon Thompson, DMA, while Thorpe conducts the Concert Band. Guest conductors include Abbotsford teacher Alex McCune, who graduated from TWU with a Music degree last spring, and fourth-yearSAMC Music student Dan White, who lives in Langley.
EVENTS AT A GLANCE:
Date: Friday, Nov. 27
Time: 7:30pm
Place: Willoughby Church (20525 72nd Avenue, Langley)
Tickets: $10 general admission. Students - pay what you can.
Date: Saturday, Nov. 28
Time: 7:30pm
Place: Peace Lutheran Church (2029 Ware Street, Abbotsford)
Tickets: $10 general admission. Students - pay what you can.
For more details, visit www.twu.ca/samc or phone 604.513.2173. For advertising and corporate partnerships with TWU’s School of the Arts, Media + Culture, email Diana.Squires@twu.ca.