St. Olaf College Band to Perform at Ankeny High School

From an Ankeny school district news release:

The St. Olaf Band, dubbed “one of America’s preeminent bands” by The New Yorker, will perform at Ankeny High School as part of its 2013 national tour. The concert will take place on Wednesday, January 30, 2013, at 7:30 PM in the Ankeny High School Auditorium. The concert is free for all students, $10 for adults/seniors and group rates (10+) are available. Tickets are available on the night of the concert, in advance at stolaftickets.com, or by calling 1-800-363-5487.

The St. Olaf Band’s national tour will feature a repertoire that includes two works by St. Olaf composers.  The first, from recent St. Olaf graduate Jonathan Bartz, is “The Valley of the Dry Bones”. The second, “Imagine, If You Will”, is penned by St. Olaf Band conductor Timothy Mahr. Other works on the program include the second movement of Maslanka’s Symphony No. 5, “Savannah River Holiday” by Ron Nelson, Sinfonietta by Leos Janáček and Adoramus te, Christe by Quirino Gasparini.

Founded in 1891, the St. Olaf Band is an ensemble noted for superb musicianship. Under the leadership of conductor Dr. Timothy Mahr, the St. Olaf Band performs the very best compositions and transcriptions for symphonic band, producing an exciting, crowd-pleasing style.

The St. Olaf Band is the oldest music organization at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, a campus internationally renowned for its high caliber of musical ensembles. The band has toured nationally since 1904 and internationally since 1906 when they performed a four-week, 30-concert tour of Norway, making them the first American collegiate band to tour Europe. The band has subsequently toured several times in Norway, Great Britain, Japan, and central Europe.

In October of 2011 the St. Olaf Band performed for King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway during their visit to St. Olaf College, the second time they have had this honor on royal visits since 1995. After the King and Queen’s visit to St. Olaf in 1995, the band toured Norway with the St. Olaf Choir and St. Olaf Orchestra in commemoration of the centennial of Norway’s peaceful separation from Sweden.

Dr. Timothy Mahr, St. Olaf Band conductor and professor of music at St. Olaf College, is a nationally recognized composer with more than 60 works to his credit, including The Soaring Hawk, for which he received the ABA/Ostwald Award. Mahr has guest-conducted a number of professional and award-winning ensembles, including the United States Air Force Band and the United States Army Field Band, as well as intercollegiate and all-state bands in over 25 states. He is the principal conductor of the Minnesota Symphonic Winds, a featured ensemble at the 2008 Midwest Clinic, the largest international band conference in the world.

Watch video of the St. Olaf Band and learn more about the ensemble, current members and conductor.