Windiana Leap Day Concert
WINDIANA “LEAP DAY” CONCERT AT HEBRON HIGH SCHOOL
Thursday, February 29, 2024, 7:30p
Windiana Concert Band
Jeffrey Scott Doebler, conductor
Hebron High School Auditorium
509 S. Main Street
Hebron, IN 46341
Admission is free for everyone
All seats general admission
No tickets
Windiana’s February 29 concert will be held in the auditorium of Hebron High School, will celebrate Leap Day, and will showcase recent exciting commissions of the Indiana Bandmasters Association.
The concert is being sponsored by the Hebron school bands. We’re honored for their sponsorship, and especially excited to bring music into the local schools. We hope this will become a new tradition, where Windiana plays at a different school for each performance.
The concert, without intermission, will last about one hour.
Windiana will open with Adrian Quince’s Leap Day. Mr. Quince is a conductor and composer in the San Francisco area. Leap Day is a joyous composition that celebrates the excitement of this special day.
Also on the program will be John Philip Sousa’s famous march, The Bride-Elect, which he extracted from his 1897 operetta of the same name. The Bride-Elect March was on the program for the Sousa Band’s 1898 tour, which included a matinee performance on February 22 at the historic (and still-active) Memorial Opera House in Valparaiso. (That was the same week the USS Maine exploded.)
The remainder of the program will showcase exciting new music commissions by the Indiana Bandmasters Association (IBA). Windiana is the leader in presenting these compositions after their premieres with the various IBA honor bands. The ongoing IBA commissioning project began in 1988, and has produced 36 compositions. IBA contracts with prominent composers to write music for the All-Region Honor Band, All-District Honor Band, Junior All-State Band, and All-State Band. Windiana is the only band to have played all 36 commissions, which includes extra research on each work that helps conductors learn more about the music.
Highlights of the IBA commissions will be:
Ancient Airs of Ireland by Michael Sweeney, which presents several tuneful Irish songs and dances. Mr. Sweeney is a graduate of Indiana University and has more than 500 publications. He is director of band publications for Hal Leonard Publishing.
Gilded Morning by John Wasson is based on the famous hymn When Morning Gilds the Skies, in a setting that portrays the beauty of a day. Mr. Wasson teaches in Texas. As a trombonist, he has performed with many notable ensembles, including Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, and the Dallas Brass.
Other IBA commissions on the program include:
Los Cuatro Vientos by Johan de Meij
Summit by Kevin Day
An Exercise in Madness by Craig Fitzpatrick
Juxtaposition by Michael Oare
Powerhouse by Benjamin Dean Taylor
Now in its 25th year, Windiana is a professional-level concert band, based in Valparaiso. Concert tours have included Italy, Hawaii, China, New Zealand, and Australia. Windiana performed at Carnegie Hall on December 29, 2022. Conductor Jeffrey Scott Doebler serves as director of music education and bands at Valparaiso University, and is the founder of Windiana.