The Ithaca College Concert Band will give a free performance, "Changes in the Winds," on Friday, April 25. Focusing on the theme of variation, the concert will begin at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.
The ensemble will be conducted by Mark Fonder. Contrary to the previously distributed School of Music events calendar, Frank Battisti will not be present at this concert.
The program will feature classic examples of the variation form, in which a central theme is repeated several times with various modifications and transformations. Charles Ives's Variations on America will demonstrate how a familiar tune can be recast in surprising and witty styles. Also on the program will be James Barnes's Fantasy Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Fisher Tull's Sketches on a Tudor Psalm, Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations, and Robert Russell Bennett's Rose Variations, featuring faculty trumpeter Frank Campos.
The concert band traces its history back to the legendary conductor Walter Beeler, who presided over the group from 1930 until his death in 1973. The ensemble's present conductor, Mark Fonder, has been teaching conducting and instrumental music education at Ithaca College since 1989. In 1994 he became chair of the music education department.
In addition to his teaching duties, Fonder has conducted and presented clinics throughout the United States. His articles have been published in numerous publications, including Music Educator's Journal, Instrumentalist, and Journal of Band Research.
For more information on Ithaca College concerts, visit the School of Music Concert Calendar or call 607-274-3717.
Contributed by Erik Kibelsbeck
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20030422094341921