Monmouth College to host two instrumental concerts Nov. 10-11

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, IL (11/06/2018) — Monmouth College will host a pair of instrumental concerts the weekend of Nov. 10-11, both with a tie to schools in Galesburg.

On Nov. 10, the College's Chamber Orchestra will take the stage along with the Knox College String Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. in the Kasch Performance Hall of Dahl Chapel and Auditorium.

The next day, the Monmouth Wind Ensemble, directed by Stacy Dziuk, will present its annual fall concert at 2 p.m. in the same space. Dean Petrie, a retired band director from Galesburg High School, will be a guest conductor. Both concerts are free and open to the public.

The latter concert features a variety of repertoire from all eras. The ensemble will present "Satiric Dances" by Norman Dello Joio and "Molly on the Shore" by Percy Grainger, both staples in the wind band repertoire.

The concert will also feature the music of Howard Hanson with his first composition for wind band, "Chorale and Alleluia." A transcription of a movement from Karl Jenkin's Mass for Peace and a new concert march by Jan Van Der Roost round out the program.

Offering a wide sampling of music from some of the most famous classical composers, the joint Monmouth-Knox concert will include Mozart's Symphony No. 34 and Tchaikovsky's Cossack Dance from Mazeppa, which Chamber Orchestra director Carolyn Suda called "both stirring, energy-filled pieces." Bassoonist Meaghan Glenn '22 of Moline, Ill., will join the strings for those two works.

Suda said "the lush and romantic sounds" of Grieg's elegiac "Heart Wounds" will highlight the beauty of the strings, leading into Jenna Cisna '19 of Galva, Ill., and Hadley Smithhisler '20 of Valley City, N.D., as featured soloists in Vivaldi's "Concerto for Two Celli in D Minor," which will be conducted by Knox senior Sam Burgess.

Holst's "exciting" setting of English folk melodies in his famous St. Paul Suite and the familiar "Pirates of the Caribbean" by Hans Zimmer will close the concert. The last piece will include percussionists Oscar Diaz '18 of Chicago, Emily Malecha '19 of Libertyville, Ill., and Hannah Lingle '19 of Muscatine, Iowa.

The concert also welcomes Brandon Ouellette back to the Monmouth stage on the oboe. A music major as a Monmouth student, the 2014 graduate is now pastor at Faith United Presbyterian Church in Monmouth.

"I feel so privileged to have Brandon play with us," said Suda. "He is a beautiful vocalist and was an integral part of the Monmouth Chorale. However, he always played the oboe so expressively for the orchestra, even coming back to play with us the first year he was at the Louisville Theological Seminary. He is a terrific musician with a vocation to the ministry."