So you think you’ve heard dance?
The Trinity Western University (TWU) concert band and orchestra are performing a lively assortment of toe-tapping music at Celebrating Dance on Nov. 27 at Langley’s Willoughby Church and Nov.28 at Abbotsford’s Peace Lutheran Church.
“So you think you’ve heard dance?” joked Allan Thorpe, DMA, chair of music at TWU’s school of the arts, media and culture (SAMC).
“Our fall program brings together an impressive array of classic pieces for band and orchestra — favourites, really — and the theme for this concert is dance.
“Some are more celebratory, others like the suite from Peer Gynt are more energetic and suspenseful. Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance is a recognizable tune that will get anyone’s feet tapping.”
Along with Sabre Dance, the SAMC concert band will perform Armenian Dances by Alfred Reed — an intriguing, out of the ordinary mixture of metres and pulses.
The SAMC orchestra will perform music from the adventure story of Peer Gynt as well as Edvard Grieg’s Symphonic Dances. The latter is a multi-movement setting of Norwegian folk tunes, all traditionally played outdoors on fiddles as dancers gathered en masse.
Both ensembles feature TWU students and alumni, with other talented musicians from across the Fraser Valley.
The SAMC orchestra is conducted by Jon Thompson, DMA, while Thorpe conducts the concert band.
Guest conductors include Abbotsford teacher Alex McCune, who graduated from TWU with a music degree last spring, and fourth-year SAMC music student Dan White, who lives in Langley.
PERFORMANCE ONE
Where? Willoughby Church, 20525 72 Ave.
When? Nov. 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets? $10 general admission; student admission by donation
PERFORMANCE TWO
Where? Peace Lutheran Church, 2029 Ware St. Abbotsford
When? Nov. 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets? $10 general admission; student admission by donation
For more details, visit www.twu.ca/samc or phone 604-513-2173.