Savannah Wind Symphony welcomes new season with ‘Sounds of Spring’
Buzzing bees, crooning frogs, the rustle of wind through new leaves—all welcomed sounds heralding the sweet return of longer days and warmer nights.
The Savannah Wind Symphony pays homage to some of these seasonal resonances and more in its annual “Sounds of Spring Concert,” March 5, in the Georgia Southern University Armstrong Campus Fine Arts Auditorium. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. featuring works by Leonard Bernstein, Percy Grainger, Richard Saucedo and Sergei Prokofiev. General admission tickets are $20.
David Carbone, guest conductor and one of three candidates in consideration for permanent artistic director and conductor, curated the concert in part with an ear toward honoring music instruction. The National Association for Music Education recognizes March as Music in Our Schools Month. And for many, this is the time band teachers and students busily prepare for state and nationallevel competitions.
Carbone knows this practice well. A music educator of 30 years, he spent most of that time teaching within a range of high school and college-level programs in Florida, Ohio, Texas, and South Carolina. Most recently, he directed bands at May River High School in Bluffton, South Carolina, leading them to multiple state-level wins. Currently, he is artistic director and conductor of the Lowcountry Community Concert Band in Beaufort, South Carolina.
“For this concert, partly I wanted to focus on composers used in secondary and college bands,” said Carbonne. “Most of these local schools are deep in the process of preparing programs of their own for large group performance evaluations and concert performance assessments. Savannah Wind Symphony is the premiere wind band of the coastal empire. We want to serve as an inspiration to them moving forward.”
Opening the program is “Windsprints,” by Richard Saucedo, a lively work with intricate, frenetic runs of notes flying around the ensemble. Its swiftness pays homage to spring breezes and athletes warming up on the field. Often included in collegiate band competitions, the work is one Kevin Vogelsang finds very enjoyable.
A retired church music director and former music faculty at Armstrong Atlantic State University, Vogelsang rejoined the symphony two years ago, most regularly playing clarinet. But in “Windsprints,” he got a chance to do something different.
“There’s a lot of great music in this concert, but I have a bit of a bias because they gave me a piano part to play on “Windsprints,” and that is just a treat,” beamed Vogelsang. “The “Candide Suite” is another one I like because it has fun clarinet licks. It’s rhythmic, it’s bouncy, it has trills and sounds like a dance. It creates a visual image that demands physical movement.”
Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide Suite” is another college concert band workhorse. The piece is dynamic, softly voiced in some places, boldly expressed in others. It also moves quickly, colorfully, easily getting listeners toe-tapping to the tempo.
Though newly rejoined, Vogelsang’s history with the band goes back 30 years when he was teaching music and piano at Armstrong Atlantic State University. He played clarinet in the band then, too, enjoying the opportunity to perform alongside people dedicated to getting the music right.
“Since I’ve been in it for the past couple of years, the audience response has been incredible,” considered Vogelsang. “This organization meets needs in the community. The majority are retired or presently directing bands, and this band is a way to continue making music with other very committed wind players. It fulfills a need for amateur musicians in the community. We don’t get paid. We do this because we love it.”
In 2008, Sarah Hanson, a speech language pathologist, moved from Wisconsin to Bluffton to begin her career in the Lowcountry. She’d played French horn since sixth grade and never quit. Though she didn’t have career aspirations with the instrument, Hanson always managed to find opportunities to perform with an ensemble. Soon after her move, she joined the wind symphony and has been with it ever since. Hanson also enjoys playing the “Candide Suite.”
“We work really hard to follow the music, and the more we play, the more our communication across the band really holds us together,” reflected Hanson. “You can hear that in the ‘Candide Suite,’ it’s fun and has tricky bits. We come together, and our cohesion shines through. I love this group and am so lucky to be playing alongside so many talented people.”
Other works in the program include “The Immovable Do” and “Themes from Greenbushes” by Percy Grainger, “March from Symphonic Metamorphosis” by Paul Hindemith, “March, Opus 99” by Prokofiev, and “An American Elegy,” by Frank Ticheli.
For Carbone, conducting the wind symphony is not only opportunity to be in front of a dedicated group of musicians, but a chance to share the inspiration he gets from the music in working with the ensemble to reveal the character of each piece.
“I love all the works we are doing,” said Carbone. “But the “March from Symphonic Metamorphosis” is the most visceral of all the music and incredibly fun to conduct. The audience will enjoy what we bring to it. What is fun is conducting what you feel, being artistic and communicating the composer’s intent. Conducting is my instrument, it’s what I bring to the performance. My primary focus is to bring the music to life and honor the work.”