DSU Symphony Band Annual Spring Concert

The Dixie State University Symphony Band will take the stage for the final time this 2012-13 academic year in presenting its program entitled “Tempered Steel”.

The DSU Symphony Band is under the direction of longtime conductor Gary Caldwell, who is in his 34th-year as director of bands at DSU, and will be joined on stage by guest conductor and DSU music faculty member Ms. Rhonda Rhodes. “Tempered Steel” will fill concert goers with hope and inspiration with eight riveting compositions, beginning with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ three-movement folk composition “English Folk Song Suite,” followed by a performance of “An American Elegy,” which was composed in memory of those who lost their lives and pay tribute to those who survived the tragedy at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.

The band will also perform the Robert Jager composition “Sinfonia Nobilissima,” along with Jerry Bilik’s “American Civil War Fantasy,” which features intermingled main themes of many riveting ballads and songs inspired by both the North and the South. The ensemble will also play the show’s title number, “Tempered Steel,” which celebrates triumph over unavoidable hardships and obstacles through through growth and resiliency in becoming “tempered.”

In addition, the band will play “Funiculi, Funicula,” composed by Luigi Denza, as well as selections from Leonard Berstein’s “West Side Story,” and the Arturo Marquez composition “Danzón No. 2” will conclude the evening’s performance.