The Georgia Southern Music Department will present its final three concerts of the Spring semester beginning tonight.
    The university’s Wind Symphony plays tonight, the University Band plays Sunday and the Symphonic Wind Ensemble will play May 4. All are free and open to the public.
    The Music Department bands are comprised of nearly 300 Georgia Southern students and faculty. The bands perform about dozen public concerts each school year, not only in the Statesboro area but throughout Georgia, in their role as GSU ambassadors.
    Tonight’s concert begins at 7:30 pm, in the GSU Performing Arts Center. The Wind Symphony is comprised of 60 largely underclass student musicians. The concert will be conducted by Dr. Robert Dunham, director of bands, and graduate conducting assistants Zachary Towery and Grant Dull.
    The performance will have four parts: "Spangled Heavens," folk music based on from “shaped-note” singing; "Song of the Gandy Dancers," from railroad worker’s chants; "Hymn to a Blue Hour," symbolizing the time between twilight and darkness; and "Incantation and Dance," an evolution from traditional to Cuban music.
    The second concert is set for Sunday afternoon at 3, also in the Performing Arts Center. The University Band, comprised of some 65 music students and faculty, as well as Statesboro community members, will be conducted by Dr. Colin McKenzie, associate director of bands.
    The concert will consist of five pieces: "Prelude, Siciliano, and Rondo" by Sir Malcolm Arnold;  Frank Ticheli's version of "Amazing Grace," featuring student Michael Thomas; George Gates'  "Sol Y Sombra;" the Overture to Giuseppe Verdi’s opera "Nabucco" and the final piece, "Beguine for Band," written by Glen Osser.
    The third concert is May 4, at 7:30 pm, in the Performing Arts Center. The Symphonic Wind Ensemble has 45 upperclassmen and graduate wind instrumentalists, conducted by Dr. Dunham, and assisted by Towery and Dull.
    The concert will feature four pieces: "Illyrian Dances" by the Royal Shakespeare Company's Guy Woolfenden; "Sparkle, " by Appalachian State University composer William Harbinson;  "Hammersmith," a two-part work by composer Gustav Holst; and "El Camino Real, " a flamenco piece by modern concert band composer Alfred Reed.