The Heisey Wind Ensemble concludes its 20th Anniversary Season with a concert at 8 p.m. on Saturday (April 30) at Swasey Chapel on the Denison University campus. Featured on this concert will be Vail Visiting Artist Eric Ruske, horn, performing the Richard Strauss Concerto No. 1.

A new piece for concert band was commissioned specifically for this concert. Charles Rochester Young has composed a piece for the Heisey Wind Ensemble titled "Noble Deeds." This celebratory piece is in honor of the members of the HWE and their commitment to performing music at a high level. The commission was a gift from David Brobst and his family in honor of his father, Fred Brobst, and his wife, Dora Brobst. David Brobst has been a member of the HWE for 16 years.

Russel Mikkelson, music director, has selected additional music that represents the history of the Ensemble. William Schuman's "Chester" is in honor of the first HWE Music Director, Lon Cass. Percy Grainger's "Irish Tune from County Derry" is in honor of HWE founder Don Workman, and Henry Fillmore's "The Footlifter" is in honor of the HWE Conductor Laureate Richard Blatti. Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter" is a tribute to the change in technology in the past 20 years. The concert concludes with the most widely played HWE piece, Carmen Dragon's arrangement of "America, the Beautiful."

Ruske was born in Chicago in 1963. He studied at Northwestern University and was previously a member of Cleveland Orchestra and Empire Brass. Ruske is currently a horn soloist and on the faculty of Boston University. He has soloed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee Symphonies, and has recorded the complete Mozart Concerti for Telarc and Virtuoso Horn and Piano for Albany Records.

Concert tickets are available at the door; cost is $10 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and students under 12 are free. Area band directors have free student passes available for their students.

The HWE was formed in February of 1985 by J M Day and Don Workman to provide an outlet for skilled musicians interested in playing traditional concert band literature. Since 1987, the Denison University Music Department has provided facilities support and some operational funding, but the balance of the cost of the season is funded through patron giving and ticket sales. Denison students are admitted the HWE through successful audition, as are community members. Throughout the 20-year history, the HWE has strived to continue a tradition of programs that both entertain and stimulate the listener. Again last year, the Heisey Wind Ensemble was selected as one of the top community music groups in the state of Ohio by the Ohio Music Educators Association and performed at OMEA's annual conference on February 6, 2004. This confirms what our community has been saying since the beginning - the HWE musicians are the finest in the area. The band membership is made up of community members, Denison University students, and Denison faculty.

Mikkelson serves as director of University Bands and associate professor of conducting at Ohio State University, where he conducts the Wind Symphony and Chamber Winds, guides the graduate wind conducting program, and guides all aspects of the University's band program. Under his direction, the OSU Wind Symphony has performed at the 2001 and 2004 OMEA Conventions and released a CD on the Mark Records label titled "Sounds, Shapes and Symbols." A second CD titled "Jubilare!" was released in December 2003. A strong advocate for the creation of new works, Mikkelson serves on the Big Ten Band Directors Association Commissioning Panel and has instituted a program of regular commissioning projects at OSU, including the new Donald E. McGinnis Award in Band Composition, scheduled to begin in 2004-05. He is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, the most prestigious American honor a band conductor can receive.

For more information about the Heisey Wind Ensemble or the patron campaign, please contact Doug Moran.

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville -- Concert by the Heisey Wind Ensemble; 8 p.m., Saturday (April 30), Swasey Chapel. Tickets are sold at the door: $10 for adults; $5 for seniors and students; free for students under the age of 12. Call (614) 367-4762 to confirm information.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

Name

Barbara Stambaugh

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Director, Media Relations

Primary Email

stambaughb@denison.edu

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(740) 587-8575