Members of the WCU Wind Ensemble perform at the Fine and Performing Arts Center.

The Western Carolina University Wind Ensemble will present its first concert of the fall at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, in the Fine and Performing Arts Center.

The ensemble will be conducted by John T. West, WCU director of bands. Titled “Tangos, Ballets and Pavanes,” the free concert will feature those types of dance music, as well as selections from the repertoire of the wind band, West said.

The program will include “Danceries,” a four-movement suite based on dance styles from 16th-century England that was written by the British composer Kenneth Hesketh, and “Redline Tango” by the young American composer John Mackey. “This high-energy work is full of complex rhythms and virtuoso technical writing. As the name implies, it pushes the band to the limit,” West said.

The ballet music in the concert title comes from the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, West said. “Pineapple Poll” is an arrangement of musical excerpts from several of Sullivan’s operettas and was originally composed for orchestra by the Australian-born musician Charles Mackerras. The music was used to stage a ballet in 1951 and is still performed today, West said.

Rounding out the program will be “Contre Qui, Rose” by Morten Lauridsen, an American composer of choral music, and the light-hearted romp “Italian Rhapsody” by Julie Giroux.

For more information, contact the WCU School of Music at (828) 227-7242.

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Last modified: Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009