The Arizona Wind Symphony
Vicki Deken
The Arizona Wind Symphony closes its indoor concert season with a presentation entitled “Lights, Camera, Action” at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 9 at the Tempe Center for the Arts. The audience will enjoy a range of music appearing on the big screen and on the stage.
What: Lights, Camera, Action!
When: 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 9
Where: Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 West Rio Salado Parkway
Tickets: $9 plus service fees; K-12 students $6; children under 6 years free. Tickets are available at the TCA Box Office or through http://tca.ticketforce.com/.
Be transported to Broadway as the AWS presents “I Dreamed a Dream” from the mega-hit Les Miserables along with a handful of selections from the noted composers and lyricists Gilbert and Sullivan.
The AWS then pays tribute to the music that sets the scenes on the silver screen. Movies with a sea setting provide the foundation for themes from The Perfect Storm and Back to the Titanic. The March from 1941 was written by film score mogul John Williams and contains his recognizable melodies and driving pulses.
The Ludlows comes from the movie Legends of the Fall. The lush melodic lines in that work will contrast with the upbeat, tap your feet melodies heard in the Selections from Grease.
The band also welcomes back former member and current educator Brian Wilson. Brian is an extraordinary euphonium soloist who will show his virtuosic skills on Philip Sparke’s Harlequin. He’ll also show the expressionism of brass on Gabriel’s Oboe, a work heard in the motion picture The Mission.
The AWS might just bring down the temperature with the theme from Frozen.
As an additional note, there will be a free outdoor concert “Music Under the Stars” on Thursday, April 23 at the Tempe Center for the Arts East Lawn Amphitheater. The Arizona Wind Symphony will be joined by the Arizona Academy Drum and Bugle Corps as well as the Desert Vista and Corona del Sol high school symphonic and steel drum bands.
Now in its 14th season, the Arizona Wind Symphony is under the musical direction of William J. Richardson. It has grown to be a 95-piece concert band comprised of adults whose careers cover a broad range including teaching, health care, music professionals, computer science and many more. The common thread among the band members is to present music of the highest caliber. The group is a Tempe-based non-profit organization, funded in part by the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the City of Tempe. You can find more information at arizonawindsymphony.org. Follow the Arizona Wind Symphony on Facebook by searching for Arizona Wind Symphony.