Southland Wind Ensemble

Our upcoming concert, Dances for Band, features composers ranging from the late 19th century to present day. The concert opens up with Arlen’s Wizard of Oz Overture, conducted by our saxophonist, Emanuel Esparza. Arlen’s overture features songs from the movie, including Over the Rainbow; Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead; We’re Off to See the Wizard; The Merry Old Land of Oz and If I Only Had a Brain. Following that is one of the greatest works in the wind band repertoire, Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy, which is often performed without the 3rd and 5th movements due to their complex meter and musical relationships across the ensemble. Grainger sourced the melodic material for the suite by recording and transcribing singers from the English countryside in an early execution of musicology. Some of these folk songs can be heard across other composer’s works, including Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Carl Maria von Weber’s Concertino, Op. 26 concludes the first half of the program, featuring our principal clarinetist, Albert Rice. The Concertino was composed for Heinrich Baermann in three days, between March 29 and April 3 of 1811, with its premiere on April 5, 1811. The success of this work prompted a commission for two new clarinet concertos (op. 73 and op. 74).