Wind and Jazz Ensembles Prepare for Spring Kickoff
The University of Sioux Falls band kicks off the Spring with their Wind and Jazz ensembles. From peppy dance marching music to European style, the concert is expected to be a hit.
With the wind and jazz ensembles’ concert coming up, the USF band spends their afternoons preparing. Band director Jonathan Neiderhiser is excited about the progress of both this year’s ensembles and the program itself.
“Our first concert was in front of plywood in Java City, so we’ve come a ways from that. Now we have about 30 in the wind ensemble and our jazz ensemble is a small combo,” Neiderhiser says.
The show will feature several different ensembles. “Rather than having the wind ensemble half and the jazz ensemble half, we’ll have different musicians all over the places including purple thunder and our saxophones,”Neiderhiser says.
USF Junior Hans Lundquist is a member of both the wind and jazz ensemble.
“I played band in high school and I had a really great time doing it. Also Jonathan and all the people in wind ensemble are just great,” Lundquist says. “It’s so fun to play with them and not only do that, but to grow as a trumpet player.”
Playing a wide variety of music the band challenges themselves by performing a European composition.
Our final piece is a piece I’m very excited about called Armedian Dances I by Alfred Reed, which is a bit of a challenge for us but it’s a good challenge because it’s got tricky rhythms and all sorts of folk song influence melodies that are sometimes a little bit different then the students are used to,”Neiderhiser says.
With so much in store, Neiderhiser is confident the concert will be a success.
The concert will be Saturday, May 13th at 7 PM in the Meredith auditorium. It is open to the public and is free of charge.
Story by Ellie Herman & LaShe’ Tatum
