SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music will present a concert featuring both the Crane Concert Band and the Crane Symphonic Band, on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m., in the Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall.
Conducted by Dr. Michael Schaff, the Crane Concert Band will present four circus-themed works, starting with an arrangement of “Circus Overture” by William Schuman, followed by “Lost in the Funhouse” by Jeffrey Hass, “The Circus Bee” by Henry Fillmore, and “Circus Franticus,” composed by Julie Giroux.
Following an intermission, the Crane Symphonic Band will take the stage, led by Visiting Instructor Stephen Meyer. The Crane Symphonic Band will open with “Firefly” by Ryan George, followed by an arrangement of Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria” for band. They will present Vaclav Nelhybel’s three-movement work, “Trittico,” followed by a movement from Maurice Ravel’s “Ma Mère l’Oye” (“Mother Goose”) suite, titled “Laideronnette, Impératrice des Pagodes” (“Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas”). They will conclude the concert with “Conga del Fuego Nuevo” by Arturo Márquez.
This event is free, and the public is invited to attend.
About the performers:
The Crane Concert Band is a 76-member wind and percussion ensemble at The Crane School of Music, conducted by Professor Dr. Michael Schaff. The ensemble’s repertoire includes a broad variety of literature from traditional and contemporary genres.
Conducted by Visiting Director of Bands Stephen Meyer, the Crane Symphonic Band is SUNY Potsdam’s oldest wind band. James Garfield, a 1905 Potsdam Normal School graduate, established the band as The Normal Band in 1926. Although Garfield referred to the group as the Symphonic Band as early as 1940, the ensemble went through several official name changes before Professor Harry Phillips settled permanently upon the current name. Guest conductors have included Percy Grainger, Edwin Franko Goldman, Vincent Persichetti, Capt. William J. Stannard (founder of the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own”) and Col. William Santlemann (U.S. Marine Corps Band, “The President’s Own”). The Crane Symphonic Band has premiered numerous works, including those by Crane faculty members Arthur Frackenpohl, Robert Washburn and Elliot Del Borgo.
This concert will be broadcast live on the Crane School of Music YouTube channel and on the SUNY Potsdam website at the performance time. To view the program and see other upcoming streaming performances, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/Crane/streaming.
For more information about SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.
Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York’s only All-Steinway institution.
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