Yale Wind Ensemble Matinee Concert to feat. Eighth Blackbird

The Yale Wind Ensemble, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director, will feature guest artists Eighth Blackbird on Sunday, November 15 at 3:00 pm in Woolsey Hall. Admission is free and no tickets are required.

● Vital Sines (Viet Cuong) -- Featuring Grammy-award winning ensemble, Eighth Blackbird

Eighth Blackbird is a four-time Grammy Award-winning American contemporary classical music sextet based in Chicago. Formed in 1996 by undergraduates at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the ensemble operates like a mix of a chamber orchestra, a rock band, and a storefront theater company—frequently performing intricate contemporary classical scores entirely from memory with structured choreography and multimedia elements.

Vital Sines was commissioned from composer Viet Cuong for Eighth Blackbird by the United States Navy Band and was premiered in 2022. In 2021, Viet Cuong found himself at his father’s bedside in the ICU. He played some of his compositions—music he knew his father loved—and hoped that the sound, or “sine waves,” would reach his father’s consciousness. Cuong realized that his love for his father and his passion for music were inseparable.

● Wine-Dark Sea: Symphony for Band (John Mackey)

Wine-Dark Sea is John Mackey’s dramatic setting of Odysseus’ journey home following the Trojan War. This piece details the trials of humanity as experienced by Odysseus, beginning with a triumphal march as he begins his voyage home, his ship overflowing with the spoils of war. Odysseus then falls in love with Kalypso, only to abandon her as he continues his journey, venturing to the gates of the underworld. Mackey’s virtuosic work provides a full spectrum of human experience as seen through the eyes of Odysseus.

Other music:

● Overture to "Candide" ( Leonard Bernstein)

● Huapanguera (Omar Arellano Osorio)

Free/general admission. No tickets or reservations required.

Watch the livestream here:
https://livestream.yale.edu/